During The Age of the Country at War, the ranks of the sohei swelled with co-religionists, often peasants, who saw salvation from the chaos of the troubled times in religion. The temple organizations who’d never before seriously challenged samurai power, now became major players in their own right, seizing whole provinces such as Kaga in the north, and vast swathes of land elsewhere. Any samurai who declined to join them were eliminated.
The samurai in general, and Nobunaga in particular, could not allow this rival power, and the campaigns to reunify the nation also became a de facto war to reestablish samurai rule.
Yasuke had become part of that war, fighting for a new future, one that promised a return to the past.
* * *
Samurai in armor photographed in the 1860s shortly before the caste was abolished.
One can imagine the popular image of a traditional senior male samurai easily enough. In full battle regalia, on horseback with his sword or bow at the ready, but also the warrior off the battlefield. The long hitatare kimono, with jacket sleeves so long that the hands are ensconced within, and the wide flowing hakama trousers held up with a thin obi sash knotted at the front. Two swords in lacquered scabbards, one long, one short, thrust into the left side of the sash. The samurai holds a fan in his right hand, both to keep himself cool and to use as a pointer when indicating something or giving an order. The distinctive topknot hairstyle (chonmage) and dour expression, the status-conscious swagger of an unassailable warrior in the presence of his inferiors and his own servile kowtowing in the presence of superiors. He walks behind his lord, passing through an exquisitely groomed garden, judiciously discussing plans of warfare, artistic spectacles or public policy. Or he surveys his lord’s fields from horseback, the stallion trotting slowly past lines of peasants bowed to the ground.
There are, and were, many romantic stories surrounding such warriors. Some based in truth and others inspired by later nostalgia for simpler and “purer” times.
One of the most well-known tales concerns ritual suicide. Samurai on the losing side in battle did sometimes cut their bellies—seppuku (sometimes called hara-kiri)—to atone for failing their lord. Not all did, especially if there was hope of living to fight another day. While, periodically, laws to forbid seppuku were promulgated to stop useless waste of life, most samurai would have found it a hard deed to fulfill; they were human, after all. And, after the major battles of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were over, hundreds, probably thousands, fled abroad rather than kill themselves, fighting as mercenaries for foreign powers. Most who stayed in Japan escaped to remote areas to become ronin, masterless warriors who sold their services on a piecemeal basis, settled down to other jobs or became bandits. Others of the vanquished armies were simply drafted by the winning side.
Another romantic legend involves the samurai’s unswervable loyalty to his master unto death. But again, while there is some truth in this legend, there are also cases where samurai changed sides, even in the midst of battle, or staged coups for money or personal advantage. In Valignano’s view, treachery was one of the main flaws and limitations of the Japanese, an opinion that bears the hallmark of outside prejudice, but also perhaps one that reflects the perilous times Valignano observed rather than a dominant theme in Japanese history.
During one 1587 siege in Kyushu a senior defending commander, Hebaru Chikayuki, was persuaded by the enemy to engineer the death of the castellan and therefore end the siege. He asked a disgruntled samurai, Usono Kurando, who’d been passed over for promotion, to kill the commander while he set his own castle alight. It was a success, but the stain of treachery ensured the killer ended his life a beggar.
Female Samurai, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1848.
Another samurai story, less well-known but grounded in historical fact, is that of the female samurai, fighting to the death to protect her family or home, or even leading troops on the battlefield. Women traditionally trained extensively in martial arts, especially with the naginata, a wooden staff with a sword blade attached to the end. Many also trained at archery, and all women were taught to use a knife to cut their own throat, and those of their children, rather than surrender to the enemy. When her husband was away or dead, the samurai wife had charge of the castle or manor, and ultimately, became the last line of defense.
One famous story is that of Ōhōri Tsuruhime, the chief priestess of the Ōyamazumi Shrine on the island of Ōmishima in the Seto Inland Sea (on the route Yasuke took to Kyoto in 1581). Ōhōri ’s island was attacked in 1541, but she and her warriors drove the invaders back into the sea. Four months later, they attacked again, and Ōhōri used a grappling hook to climb aboard the invaders’ flagship and confront the enemy general face-to-face. He mocked her but got his comeuppance when she cut him down. Her men then pounded the enemy ships with grenades and the invaders retreated. Two years later, battling the same foes, Ōhōri’s betrothed was killed in action. Brokenhearted, she flung herself into the sea and drowned. She was eighteen years old.
Yasuke had joined the exalted ranks of the direct retainers to the most powerful man in the land. But he hadn’t fully grasped the magnitude of the gifting of the short sword marked with the Oda crest. He’d been given various weapons before in battle, even presented with beautiful tools of war by other lords and commanders, but they’d never come with such life-changing status, titles or esteem. Only after a period of reflection and noticing the different way he was treated by the other samurai of Nobunaga, did Yasuke fully understand. The bestowing of a sword from a Japanese lord to his vassal was a major occurrence. It was the symbol of his new status and virtually the highest honor Nobunaga could bestow on another without actually giving a fief. Nobunaga’s own sons, Yasuke was told, had wept when they’d received similar ceremonial blades from their father.
With the sword came the modest house tucked within the trees off a path leading up to the castle, a beautiful garden with a spring-fed rock pool, and the two attendants—an old married couple given by Nobunaga to provide for Yasuke’s every need and keep his residence immaculate.
Yasuke also received a moderate stipend. The salary was to feed, clothe and pay his new staff, and to provide Yasuke with the funds to entertain, and be entertained, in the manner appropriate to his new station.
Nobunaga, something of a sartorial dandy himself, then provided several sets of clothes. Based on the wardrobe alone, Yasuke would clearly be required to dress in different ways depending on whom Nobunaga wanted to impress. Not only a formal kataginu jacket with wide loose-fitting hakama trousers and kosode under shirt, but outfits the warlord had ordered from tailors in Azuchi and Kyoto—those with recent experience of copying European dress. Due to Nobunaga’s own notorious taste for European garb, particularly cloaks, body armor and hats, and the inevitable fad which followed his example throughout Japanese court circles, this fashion was fast becoming a specialty of some clothiers. Wide trousers, doublet, collared shirt and short manteaus, as you’d find in any court in Spain or Portugal, all custom made to Yasuke’s great size and neatly folded in intricately decorated wooden drawers in the back room of the house.
Nobunaga’s inner circle were used to hosting Chinese engineers, artisans, experts and consultants, visiting European priests and exotic visitors from the realm’s farthest borders, but they’d never been asked to accept an outsider as one of their own. It was a truly unique event in their history, in world history, and many would have been puzzled, possibly even mutely offended. However, Nobunaga’s word was final.
Besides, this foreigner was affable, mannerly and worthy to train with. Sparring with Yasuke, Nobunaga’s other samurai had already picked up new and unusual moves, and so had he. The process strengthened all of them and the Oda clan was all the more formidable for it. Nobunaga—curious about the bigger world beyond eastern Asia, and hungry for much that it offered—had never been a man overly concerned with tradition or protocol. If anyth
ing, he brandished his disdain for convention as other lords clung to their pedigrees and heirloom swords. It was he, Nobunaga, who’d create his own traditions and decide what was acceptable in a new Japan truly of his own making. Advancing Yasuke, a foreigner from thousands of miles away, to a samurai of his close household would be one of many “firsts” with which Nobunaga would challenge “Old” Japan.
Bestowing a foreign-born warrior with the title of samurai was, to Oda Nobunaga, one more way of establishing himself as the creator of a New Japan.
Chapter Fourteen
His Lord’s Whim
As a samurai retainer, Yasuke’s primary role had changed. His main job was no longer security detail; there were plenty of others to handle that. Instead he became something of a consultant. “Nobunaga never tired of talking to him,” wrote the Jesuit Mexia, a key colleague of Valignano’s who was with him in Azuchi. “As he was also strong and entertaining, he pleased Nobunaga.” Which gives us a glimpse of not just his skill in warfare but also Yasuke’s affable side. It is easy to see him training with Nobunaga and his comrades, and providing the odd laugh with a comic turn or feat of strength.
His life had changed considerably. He was now a man of independent means, a householder and employer with all the new responsibilities that came with those roles. He was not just a samurai, he was a citizen, and a highly ranked one at that. People in the streets did not only gape at him, they bowed, heads to the earth, as they addressed him. His servants took over all the household chores he’d been accustomed to performing for Valignano, and Yasuke was free to fulfill his various roles for Nobunaga, train for the battles which would surely soon come, and get to know his new sparring companions.
Like everyone else in Nobunaga’s service, Yasuke was subject to the warlord’s every whim or order. If Nobunaga wanted to spend the day at court dispensing judgments, then Yasuke would be in attendance as backup security, and novelty. If Nobunaga wanted to take his horse out, then Yasuke and the other pages would ride with him. If he wanted to engage his pages in competitions of strength for fun, then Yasuke would partake and be the winner. If Nobunaga wanted to put an idea past a new ear, then they would talk. That his residence was only a short distance away from the palace made it all the easier for his Japanese lord to summon him.
As companion, Yasuke had officially joined the two dozen handsome and spirited young men he’d first ridden to Azuchi with. These were Nobunaga’s pages, the cream of the clan youth from ancient Oda family vassals’ households.
Chief among them was clearly Mori Ranmaru, Nobunaga’s favorite, renowned for his beauty and bravery. Then there were Ranmaru’s youngest brothers Rikimaru and Bōmaru, too young to have domains of their own as yet, but already blooded warriors. And Ogura Matsuju and Jingorou, sons by another father of Nobunaga’s concubine Onabe no Kata. Takahashi Toramatsu, a rising star. Otsuka Mataichiro and the others had been in this band of samurai for years and would soon be given fiefs of their own, replaced by their younger brothers and cousins in Nobunaga’s immediate entourage.
All of good birth, with promising future careers. Following Japanese warrior custom, Nobunaga allowed these young men to enter his close service and promoted them through the ranks.
Mori Ranmaru, by Utagawa Yoshiiku, 1867.
They also, Yasuke soon learned, engaged in sexual relations with Nobunaga and other older samurai.
* * *
The samurai had adopted, supposedly from practices within the Buddhist monasteries, same-sex pederasty—nanshoku or shudo, the “way of adolescent boys”—as a way to promote to-the-death loyalty among warrior bands. Samurai boys in training were commonly apprenticed with an older warrior to learn martial skills, the samurai code of honor and formal etiquette. And, very often, the instructing male would take the boy as a lover until the apprentice became an adult. The older lover was expected to reflect on his role as a mentor through this benevolent love and become a better adult in the process.
In this arrangement, both parties, with their families’ blessing, generally agreed to be exclusive as far as male-to-male sexual relations were concerned. Either male was also permitted to take female lovers. This codified system became role-defined; the adult male was the active, desiring penetrative partner, and the younger, sexually receptive boy was considered to submit out of love, loyalty and affection, rather than mere sexual desire. One Jesuit explained that, in Japan, committing sodomy with a boy did not cause the boy any discredit or dishonor, as sodomy was not considered a sin and boys “had no virginity to lose” anyway. Sex between the couple ended when the boy came of age—and then normally went in search of a younger lover himself. The original relationship would, ideally, develop into a lifelong bond of friendship and loyalty which would transcend to the battlefield.
As might be assumed, the Jesuits took a rather dim view of these homosexual relations. Valignano wrote that the Japanese “are much addicted to sensual vices and sins, a thing which has always been true of pagans.” He went on to say, “Worse is their great dissipation in the sin that does not bear mentioning. This is regarded so lightly that both the boys and the men who consort with them brag and talk about it openly.”
Nobunaga was known to be involved in relationships with many of his pages at one time or other. During Yasuke’s time, Ranmaru was clearly his favorite. And after much sake, the brazier embers glowing, Nobunaga and his chosen one would quietly make their way to the warlord’s sleeping room and a white silk futon glimmering in candlelight.
Homosexual relationships among warriors were not unique to Japan. There is a rich history of fierce warrior bands who would fight to the death rather than let down their lovers beside them. The most famous is perhaps the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite corps composed of one hundred fifty pairs of male lovers who fought for Thebes, a city-state of ancient Greece. Friend and foe alike considered them invincible. Their end came at the Battle of Chaeronea, where Philip of Macedon effectively completed his conquest of the Greek states. While the rest of their army fled the field, the Sacred Band refused to surrender and were annihilated to the last man.
Closer in proximity to where Yasuke spent the key years of his life were the Hwarang (Flower Knights), warrior elite of the ancient Korean Kingdom of Silla. Although the evidence is not conclusive due to the loss of many historical sources, they seem to have been cavalry bands of young men taken from noble houses who were trained in the martial arts and enjoyed great success in battle. They also formed romantic attachments as Silla became the most powerful kingdom on the Korean peninsula for several centuries during the first millennium.
It’s been suggested in recent academic studies that Yasuke was engaged in this kind of shudo relationship with Nobunaga. Yasuke, in his mid-late twenties, was far older than a normal youth role in shudo allowed; in fact, he was old enough to be in the senior role. However, the handsome giant certainly appealed to Nobunaga on multiple levels, so one of these may well have been sexual. Perhaps one of the clues to his swift rise is that he submitted to Nobunaga’s advances.
Had Nobunaga attempted any kind of sexual relations, it is unlikely Yasuke could have resisted. He now owed everything to his lord and was entirely in his power. If it occurred, however, one wonders what Yasuke would have thought of it. He was from a very different cultural background, and although it is hard to find information on sexual practices in ancient Africa prior to Church missionary activity, there is a long history of acceptance of transgender individuals and homosexuality. Many African languages did not even have a word for homosexuality until loan words came from outside, indicating its probable unremarkable part of their human experience.
Traditional Dinka society was family orientated with a strong emphasis on all males having children, but their society also revolved economically, and socially, around cattle and cattle rearing, which would have left a lot of man-to-man time while herding. Young adolescent men, whose job it was to mind th
e herds, had time on their hands and few girls nearby, so close male relationships would have thrived. Perhaps, as with the samurai, any sexual relationships were considered as a “life stage.” The ultimate aim of male adulthood was marriage and children to keep the family line going.
Near the Dinka lands were the Azande warriors, in what is now the border region between South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. Similar to the samurai, elder warriors formally approached the parents of teenaged boys to ask for their hand in marriage. The boy then lived with the warrior as his wife until he came of age and was released to find a male teenaged wife of his own. The boys accompanied their husbands into battle and looked after their weapons. Azande means “the people who possess much land,” giving an idea of their prowess and success as warriors; they battled regularly against the Dinka people.
Slightly to the east of the Dinka lands, among the Oromo people of modern Ethiopia, male-to-male relationships, midiisa-i, were common, as they had a rigid system of grades or ranks which were determined by age, and which did not allow men to marry until they reached the age of thirty-two. This meant an outlet other than sexual relations with women had to be found. The Oromo were also a warrior-orientated people, excellent horsemen, who spent a lot of time on campaign, and therefore even after reaching marriageable age would have spent a lot of time away from female company.
However, Yasuke had been in Jesuit employ for many years, and prior to that, had inhabited a Muslim world. Neither Catholicism nor Islam permit homosexuality, so there would have been tremendous societal pressure against the realities of human nature.
Yasuke: In Search of the African Samurai Page 18