Yasuke, Japan’s First Black Samurai | Hacker News Reader

Yasuke, Japan’s First Black Samurai

smithsonianmag.com

38 pointslermontov23 comments

> Yasuke was an African warrior in the employ of Nobunaga, a powerful feudal lord known as the “Great Unifier,” during Japan’s Sengoku period. The first Black samurai, he was at Nobunaga’s side when the daimyo died; according to popular lore, Nobunaga tasked Yasuke with returning his head to his son.

> Beyond his relationship with the famous warlord, Yasuke was a barrier-breaking figure in his own right. Though his life is poorly documented, his story speaks to the surprising cultural connections that existed in 16th-century Japan.

Whenever I see anything like this, I'm immediately skeptical and consider the possibility that some modern is anachronistically and inaccurately interpreting some ancient text through the lens of modern racial categories and descriptions.

Was this guy "Black" in the modern sense (as in a very dark-skinned person of African descent) or "black" in some other sense? I'm reminded of some British scientist or scholar from hundreds of years ago who was described as "black" in some contemporary document, which a lot of people took to mean black-as-African, except that description in that time period probably actually meant something more like white person with black hair and eyes.

Later on, it says the daimyo thought Yasuke's skin looked like it was covered in black paint, which makes it more likely he was actually African, but I'm still not totally convinced.

My understanding is that Yasuke was Black in the way used today.

However he was not considered bound by the same rules as a Japanese samurai, since he was not required to commit ritual suicide on the death of his lord, Nobunaga. That he lived after Nobunaga's death has some sort of meaning; whether that has been fully discovered at this point I don't know.

The Japanese wikipedia article mentions there are records of him being born in Portuguese Mozambique. That would make him black-as-African.

Ehh I'm not sure the Japanese would have a way of knowing that. Given the time period this was in. Not sure if that source can be trusted.

One can trust suprisingly little in the history if you go down this route of not accepting non-verifiable information.

That's not how that works.

My experience in threads where black, African, or indigenous people do something historically besides exist as victims of colonialism is that there is always someone who is skeptical and speculates without evidence that the story is probably made up or that the contribution to history is unimportant.

As powerful as the story is, he wasn’t a samurai. More like a bodyguard or retainer.

Are you saying that because of his social class?

Because as far as Edo society would be concerned, anyone who holds weapons would default to being a samurai if doing so legitimately or a peasant bandit if doing so illegitimately. So essentially he should be one, and seemingly was treated as one from reports of his fine clothing, social standing amongst other bodyguards, and land holding.

Really? My understanding was that the Samurai were a distinct warrior class with a specific social standing either earned or inherited, not just anyone who could buy a sword.

I'm not saying he's not a samurai, just that "holds a sword" does not a samurai make.

Outside of pitched battles, non samurai weren’t allowed to hold weapons much less swords. Peasant levies could be called on for the defense of a land, but they were just temporary troops.

Retainers and bodyguards defend the title of their lord, and were essentially always of the samurai class. If you were recruited as a peasant for the job, then you became the class.

It’s not like medieval Europe where you have to be officially knighted to join the class. The equivalents of man at arms and mercenaries were also of the samurai class.

So as a cross poster said: the man was officially taken as a bodyguard to the daimyo, received a household, and was presented with a katana. Thus for all intents and purposes he’s a samurai. There’s just no other class permitted to do that job.

Edit: It would also be a grave insult for a samurai to be protected by a non samurai. To claim the lord, a noble warrior, requires a mere peasant to protect him… well that’s not permissible. So the daimyos bodyguard will be recognized as a samurai at least within his own lands.

I believe who counted as a samurai was much less clear during the Sengoku period, to the extent where holding a sword did basically make you a de facto Samurai. After unification, those following the major leaders were the only ones recognized as samurai.

The rigidity of the samurai as a class varied largely depending on when you're looking in Japanese history. In the Heian Court period, samurai were just armed people in the service of Japanese nobility (deriving authority through relation with the Emperor who was considered to be descended from God.) After the Genpei War the samurai became more hereditary until the Sengoku/Warring States Period.

Several of the key players during this time were themselves just peasants. Then after Tokugawa took over, he once again encouraged the hereditary samurai as a way to ensure stability.

Yasuke was under Nobunaga who was very much active when the definition of samurai was much more fluid than rigid.

Not just any weapon. The samurai were synonymous with the daishou, the paired small and large swords which it was their unique privilege and obligation to wear in public. This is the element that appears to be missing for Yasuke; at least there isn't any record that he wore them.

He was given his own house to run and a katana directly by daimyo Nobunaga. That would indicate he was a samurai.

Remember that at that time being a Samurai was a flexible thing. You could become a Samurai even if you were a peasant if you took arms for your lord, survived, and impressed them sufficiently. It was about service and utmost commitment to your lord. There also were women Samurai, including the famed Tomoe Gozen - known as the white tiger with the strength of ten men.

Ah, I clicked on this article hoping for information but it felt more like an ad for the Netflix series and at times goes in detail to describe fan fiction from historians only to go on record to state there is no evidence behind said claims. At that point why even bother to include it in the article as many reader might not even notice this. This article feels more low effort than most articles from the Smithsonian and I hope it's not a sign of lower quality works to come.

I gave up on Smithsonian magazine a decade ago when they started going woke. The article topics and writing fulfill their agenda, and I choose not to pay for that.

Eh. Not sure about that. Yasuke is a real person or we think he is. But this feels more like speculative fiction with an advertisment rather than anything else.

Expecting a Netflix serie/movie to come up.

There already is a Netflix anime loosely-based on the historical events, although it wasn't a very good adaptation in my opinion.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/43697/Yasuke

Another anime, Afro Samurai, which is even more loosely-based, is a lot more interesting, albeit quite over-the-top.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/1292/Afro_Samurai

soundtrack produced by flying lotus!

Afro samurai has nothing to do with yasuke evinced by the number of steam punk robot people and rocket propelled grenade launchers.

Great series though!

Why is there no show set in like heyday Mali or one of the other countless African societies of the past. They surely all have their own lore and stories just as much as medieval Europe has had. I would love to watch eg. the rise of Mansa Musa. Certainly there are many more stories I don’t even know about.

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