Yasuke Extended Biography
YasukeExtended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.We know very little about the life of the man called Yasuke. He steps into the historical record in 1579, after he had entered the service of several Jesuit priests. Everything we know about his life comes from Jesuit or Japanese records and journals from 1579 to 1582. We’re not sure what his birth name was—he took the name Yasuke in Japan, perhaps because it sounded similar to his birth name. Most historians think that Yasuke came from a Bantu-speaking area of East Africa, perhaps present-day Mozambique. Others suggest he was from Ethiopia, Nigeria, or Sudan. Given his later military exploits, it’s almost certain that Yasuke was trained as a warrior. We’re not sure why he joined the Jesuits. It’s possible that he was enslaved and was forced to travel with them. But it’s likely that he joined their service voluntarily, as a bodyguard. Jesuits arrived in the Indian Ocean following the expansion of Portuguese military and economic presence there. In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese established a series of forts, trading posts, and colonies that reached from the coast of East Africa to India, China, and Japan. During that time, Catholic Jesuit missionaries began arriving in Japan with the goal of converting the country to Catholicism. Established in 1540, the Jesuit order had sent missionaries all around the Americas, Africa, and Asia in the sixteenth century. In Japan, they arrived alongside Portuguese merchants, who acted as the middlemen between Japan and their rivals in China. This period of open trade with the Portuguese, from 1543 to 1614, is known as the Nanban period and saw expanded connections between Japan, Europe, and the Indian Ocean trade. In Japan, the period from 1467 to 1615 is known as the Sengoku period— the Age of Warring States. During this time, the various daimyo—Japanese feudal lords—and their clans fought with each other to unify Japan under their banner.It was during this time of conflict and the forging of new global connections that Yasuke came to Japan. By this time, he was traveling with a Jesuit inspector named Alessandro Valignano, who was tasked with inspecting the progress of the Jesuit mission in Japan. When they arrived in the city of Kyoto, crowds of people rushed to see the African man. Reportedly, this curiosity was generated by his dark skin and his size. Reports indicate that Yasuke was around 6 feet 2 inches tall, about a foot taller than the average Japanese man of the time. Sources also speak of Yasuke’s prodigious strength and martial prowess. All the commotion drew the attention of Oda Nobunaga, a daimyo and head of the powerful Oda clan. Nobunaga is known as the first of the “Great Unifiers” of Japan. By 1579, he was the most powerful man in the country and was in the process of centralizing his authority over most of the other clans. Sources claim that when he met Yasuke, Nobunaga was suspicious that the man’s skin had been dyed and demanded Yasuke be scrubbed to reveal the deception. Despite this early indignity, the two men quickly formed a friendship. Yasuke apparently spoke Japanese well, and the two spent a great deal of time in conversation. Yasuke was one of the few people permitted to dine with the daimyo. Apparently, Yasuke was also an able warrior, because Nobunaga presented him with a sword and made him Japan’s first foreign-born samurai. Some historians dispute this, since the sources attesting to Yasuke’s rank are missing or limited. But Yasuke did enter Nobunaga’s service and fought by his side in several battles. Yasuke took part in the Battle of Tenmokuzan, which saw Nobunaga’s victory over the Takeda clan. After this battle, Nobunaga was at the height of his power. Soon after, in June 1582, he was resting with a small group of attendants at Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto. There, one of Nobunaga’s generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, betrayed him. While Nobunaga was resting at the temple,
Yasuke - Extended Biography2Mitsuhide approached with a large force and surrounded the temple, attacking and setting fire to it. We don’t know why Mitsuhide betrayed his lord. It might have been personal grievance or ambition. Whatever the case, seeing that all was lost, Nobunaga committed seppuku, or ritual suicide, rather than be captured. Yasuke fought Mitsuhide’s men along with the other guards, but they were overwhelmed. Immediately after Nobunaga’s death, Yasuke traveled to Nobunaga’s heir, who was gathering troops at a nearby castle. However, Mitsuhide prevailed, and Yasuke was captured. Because Yasuke was not Japanese, Mitsuhide released him back to the care of the Jesuits. Mitsuhide’s reign was short, and he was killed while fleeing battle just 13 days after betraying Nobunaga. After his capture, the historical record is silent on Yasuke. He steps off the pages of history, and we must speculate about the end of his life in much the same way we do about its beginning. He might have left Japan along with Valignano in 1582, once again as a bodyguard in the employ of the Jesuits. Or, as a masterless samurai—a ronin—he might have become a pirate. We don’t know. Yasuke’s life is yet another example of how the lives of ordinary people enter the realm of the extraordinary. For individuals such as Yasuke, we only get glimpses of their lives when their paths crossed with powerful figures, like Valignano and Nobunaga. In these brief moments, they walk across the pages of history, giving us a glimpse into a world more complicated than any single narrative can reveal.
Yasuke - Extended Biography3Sources:Lockley, Thomas and Geoffrey Girard. African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan. Toronto: Hanover Square Press, 2019.