Yasuke: In Search of the African Samurai

by Thomas Lockley

  This work gave my career a very new and specific focus: I began to teach courses concentrating expressly on the Japanese discovery of the world and the world’s discovery of Japan. Yasuke shaped me. And, by 2015, flush with an abundance of genuine historical material and evidence of this amazing man, I set out on the task of writing his life story, thinking it would cover a few thousand words. At fifteen thousand words—and five thousand over my intended academic publication’s word limit—I realized Yasuke had a much larger story to tell than I’d first dreamed.

  And so this book came to be written, almost by mistake. But the more stones I rolled over, the more fascinating life stories, yet to be told, emerged: stories of mercenaries, sailors, explorers, travelers, sultans, viziers, concubines, pirates, missionaries, cooks, warlords and adventurers, as well as heartrending tales of hard, anonymous, unrelenting slave labor. It became the story of not just Yasuke, but that of people like him, whose deeds do not normally enter the history books, either because they cannot themselves write their stories, or because the dominant sections of global society tend to concentrate on the great exploits of their own classes and castes, and not the “little people”—or in Yasuke’s case, the giants—who hold them up. I realized, or hoped, that millions of people could speak through Yasuke. He could, when brought fully back to life, perhaps give a voice to those whom history has often forgotten.

  But then I made an even more remarkable discovery. Yasuke lives on today. The African samurai actually seems very much to be a character of the internet age as much as the sixteenth century. Hundreds have been inspired to produce documentaries, make computer games, write novels, draw manga and use Yasuke’s legend as a base for educational and cultural programs. As the final chapter shows, Yasuke has taken the step bestowed to only a few people in history, from mere mortal to an adaptable and still-growing legend. This remarkable man’s story seems to attract people for a variety of reasons as I discovered in 2016 from the feedback to my first academic paper about him: “The story of Yasuke: Nobunaga’s African retainer.” The reactions that came in via email and other platforms from all over the world were in some ways shocking in what they revealed about modern humans and our relationship to history in general and to the historical character of Yasuke in particular.

  For Sarah, a television producer, Yasuke was representative of an alternative view of history which does not place white European males at its center, but tells a soaring success story of a non-European, without placing them as a victim. As an American Caucasian female working in a largely male profession in Japan, she’d personally experienced many instances of sexism and racism directed toward her, including jibes at her Japanese husband by a white American coworker. For her, Nobunaga’s regard for Yasuke legitimized his worth in her eyes far more than the Jesuit disregard for their African servants casts them as victims of their age.

  A British author and fellow Japanese history enthusiast wrote to suggest Yasuke proves that, despite what some people across all nations now claim, the world “has always been a lot smaller than it appears.” Looking through history, we find tens of thousands of Yasukes—immigrants in places you’d never think a person of that race, color, nationality or creed would be. “In times when the world faces a refugee crisis, Yasuke proves there have always been exceptional people who’ve adapted and become part of a culture completely alien to their own.”

  For many correspondents, Yasuke represented the outsider who achieves success, a lesson for everybody on how to deal with modern-day issues of multiculturalism and alienation in a globalized world—a world where homogenous societies no longer exist and political states rarely follow ethnic or tribal borders. There is no reason why a man like Yasuke was any less likely to rise to prominence in a medieval Japanese setting than Handel was in a British setting or Son Masayoshi, son of postwar Korean immigrants and one of the world’s richest self-made men, in modern-day Japan. Yasuke’s story is one to provoke inspiration, inclusion and positive action.

  The fact that published history has traditionally been written from an ethnocentric, and predominantly Eurocentric, perspective is probably the most likely reason why Yasuke’s story has received so little serious attention up to now. It does not fit into any national box, nor does it identify with major national diasporas or cross-national community relationships, as no one knows for certain from where he originates. The academic research on the black presence in Japan and East Asia, in any language, is tiny, and research on non-Japanese and immigrant communities, with the exception of European traders in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and current-day immigration issues, in the Japanese context is also highly limited. Yasuke has essentially managed to slip through the cracks of historical research and therefore historical storytelling until now. Whether this attempt at telling the full and comprehensive story of the African samurai will change it, or in fact reduce the fascination that comes with his mystery is hard to tell. I, for one, hope not. I hope Yasuke’s story lives on for a long time and continues to provide a source of inspiration for whoever needs or wants it.

  This book is about one young man of African origin whom the tides of history washed up in Japan. The central theme is his life, but to understand and analyze that life, it became necessary to illuminate the maritime and migratory lives of Africans and other peoples who had contact with them in the sixteenth century. As such, it covers a wide swathe of the globe illuminating his journey and likely life from Africa to Japan. After the more than eight years that this book eventually took to create, I apologize for any errors that may have slipped in, and the fault is entirely mine.

  This book does not in general attempt a critical look at the African slave trade and its global consequences, nor does it attempt any particular cultural criticism of any who engaged in what we might now regard as dubious practices. It tries to look at facts and possibilities and present them as such. To the contemporary mind, many of the activities and beliefs of people of all ilk herein seem strange and perhaps even horrific. However, at the time they were not necessarily seen in the same light. In a world where Christians and Muslims, and indeed militant Buddhist monks, saw it as their prime and sacred duty to spread the word of “their” god, enslaving and even killing people was often justified as an act that would save the victim’s eternal soul. It is easy to look back and judge, and likely people in the future will look back at our world with disbelief and horror. I have tried to resist the temptation to write as a modern judge and, instead, write as a dispassionate observer so as to give a better feeling and flavor of the times. I hope not to appear callous for doing this.

  * * *

  I would like to express profound gratitude to Manami Tamaoki, my agent, and her team and colleagues, particularly Ken Mori and Alex Korenori, at the Tuttle-Mori Agency in Tokyo, for having the faith, and dedicating the energy and time to help develop a very rough idea from a first-time author. None of this would ever have happened without them. They helped shape an earlier rendering of this book (published in Japan) and found the right agency in the United States to facilitate the version which you now find in your hands. Thank you to Peter McGuigan and the whole team at Foundry Literary + Media for your commitment to the project, shaping its future and helping to bring Yasuke to a wider audience.

  Peter teamed me with Geoffrey Girard, an experienced, inspiring and innovative author and collaborator. Throughout the time we were writing together, I never failed to pick up new tips, ideas and techniques which continuously strengthened and took the book in new, exciting and often unforeseen directions. Geoffrey and I traveled several thousand miles together across Japan in the summer of 2017, investigating Kyoto, Azuchi, Lake Biwa, Mount Fuji and the former Takeda domains and the routes of Yasuke’s principal travels. Not to mention more general background work in various regions—from research in the National Diet Library in Tokyo to an unforgettable dinner in Kyoto at one of the oldest restaurants in Japan, which amazingly existed during Y
asuke’s lifetime. It was a fast-paced and tiring expedition, and my leg muscles felt ten years younger at the end. Geoffrey, thank you for all your hard work, your great questions and your discerning eye.

  Thanks to our publisher and editor, Peter Joseph, and his team at Hanover Square Press who embraced this story and its message, put their full support behind it from Day One, and then kept a close eye on proceedings and provided valuable guidance and collaboration throughout.

  At Ohta Publishing in Tokyo, I am deeply grateful for the work of Junko Kawakami, the original editor, and Yoshiko Fuji, the translator of the original Japanese edition, for their hard work, input and modification suggestions which were crucial to the book. And also to Sakujin Kirino sensei, a venerable expert on the Honnō-ji Incident, whose kind reading of the first book and comments were highly constructive. Here is also an appropriate place to thank my friend, the Master Calligrapher Ponte Ryuurui, who crafted the characters at the beginning of each part of the book. He can be found at www.ryuurui.com.

  For academic advice, support, ideas and friendship, a thousand thanks to Professor Akira Mabuchi of Nihon University College of Law, Professor Timon Screech of the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, Professor Lúcio de Sousa of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Cliff Pereira, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Dr. Onyeka Nubia, Writer in Residence at Narrative Eye, Dr. Ryan Hartley, and Philip Lockley (my brother).

  Other notable contributions came from my old friend Akinori Osugi, the artist Keville Bowen and from Heidi Karino’s lovely translations and language advice. And of course thanks to the old guys at the gym, who were happy to spend hours debating Yasuke’s life, while I listened and noted their interesting takes in my head. In particular, Isao Hashizume, who generously hosted Geoffrey Girard and myself at his ancient family home in Hikone on the shores of Lake Biwa, and accompanied us in Azuchi. And thanks to all the other people who have helped in a hundred ways.

  Finally I also would like to thank my wife, Junko, for putting up with endless Yasuke talk, probably not quite finished yet. Her ideas, advice and translation help with obscure texts were key to conceiving of Yasuke’s life. Secondly, my children, Eleanor and Harry, who wanted to hear the stories and play sword fighting (I always had to be Akechi) in the park. Masae and Yusaburo Kinoshita and Andrew (my dad) and Caryl Lockley for looking after us and the kids so well to give me time to work on the book.

  * * *

  Yasuke’s story continues—it sometimes seems that it’s only now getting started—and continues to provide a source of inspiration for all who meet him.

  弥助殿、幸あれ。バンザイ！

  Thomas Lockley, Tokyo, 2018

  NOTES

  The selected bibliography at the end of each chapter section is a collection of the best resources available for readers to find out more about Yasuke’s world. For more, please visit AfricanSamurai.com.

  PART 1

  Chapter 1

  Yasuke’s name: The word Yasuke (pronounced Yas-kay) is almost definitely a Japanese rendering of a foreign name, although “Yasuke” is not a wholly unknown name in Japan. Slaves and freedmen in the Portuguese world were generally known by the Portuguese names their masters gave them, and Yasuke would have been introduced by Father Organtino, the priest who accompanied him to his audience with Nobunaga, by this name. Similar-sounding names can be found in many of the variants of the biblical name “Isaac” from around the Indian Ocean. It is Yisake in Amharic (Ethiopian), Isaque in Portuguese (pronounced something like “Yi-saa-ki”) and Ishaq in Arabic (pronounced “Yi-shak”). Any of these three variants would quite likely be rendered into Japanese as “Yasuke,” as the sounds of Japanese do not exactly match those of an Ethiopian language, Arabic or Portuguese.

  Guns: Warfare in Japan changed forever in the years following 1543, when a Chinese pirate ship with several Portuguese merchants onboard was accidentally blown to the tiny island of Tanegashima just south of Kyushu. The local daimyō was predictably fascinated by the harquebus muskets which the merchants were only too happy to demonstrate the use of, and it didn’t take long for his craftsmen to copy the innovative and effective killing machine. From there on, gun usage and manufacture spread like wildfire, and one of the earliest proponents was a youthful Oda Nobunaga. The gun transformed warfare, and society, as even peasants could be trained to use them cheaply, easily and quickly. No longer did samurai have to train from birth with sword and bow before they stood a chance on the battlefield. Armies could and did expand quickly and cheaply. While the older weapons still had their role, guns quickly became the center of strategy and battle plans. The Japanese soon copied and started to mass-manufacture them on a massive scale. These guns were of the harquebus type, early matchlock muskets, fired by pulling a trigger which touched a lighted match to the ignition. A charge of gunpowder was inserted into the muzzle, followed by the lead shot. The load was placed securely at the correct end of the barrel with a ramrod. These were light guns, easily carried by fast-moving armies and required little training to use. Shot was made on the battlefield by molding molten lead with a bullet mold carried at the warrior’s belt. It is said that by the turn of the seventeenth century, there were more guns in Japan than in the whole of the rest of the world combined.

  Dates: The dates used throughout this book are derived from historical documents. The calendar used in Japan at the time was the Chinese lunar calendar, hence New Year occurring in February of the European calendrical system. The calendar used by the Jesuits during this time was the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar, used in much of the world today, was adopted by the Catholic Church in 1582, but news of this would not have reached Japan for some time. Some dates in the historical documents are unclear, others contradictory. Every effort has been made to be as accurate as possible.

  Burial at sea: Death at sea on Portuguese ships, when it came, was a simple matter. The master blew his silver whistle, the survivors bowed their heads and prayed to their god or gods that they were not next, and then their comrade, still warm, was tossed into the sea wrapped—if he was rich enough to have one—in his own sleeping mat.

  Missing travelers: Many of the other Europeans employed on the initial India run—a mishmash of Portuguese, Germans, Flemings, Italians and Spaniards; mostly fugitives or desperate treasure hunters—had either perished on the earlier voyages or been content to stay in Goa or other parts of India after the arduous trip east, hence the high proportion of African and Indian sailors on Portuguese ships in Japanese art of the period. Any remaining European officers onboard had specific orders from the Portuguese Crown, who made all appointments, to carry on eastward. The Jesuits were sent by their order, and the mission superior (or Visitor if one were present) could decide where to send them upon their arrival in India. The common sailors had no such orders. They were short-term hires, engaged only for the one-way voyage, and then laid off or rehired once they landed at a new dock.

  Trade in Japan: Systems and industries often thrive in strife-torn times, and sixteenth-century Japan was no exception. People from across the world, from Rome to China and Mexico, recognized those opportunities in Japan and went to answer that call. Japan had been focused for hundreds of years on a China-based trade system which had transferred extraordinary wealth from the center of Asia (China) to the periphery (Japan, Korea, Thailand and the smaller kingdoms and sultanates which now make up Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines), yet demanded subordination to the power, munificence and spiritual centrality of the Chinese emperor: The Son of Heaven. Trade was only allowed in controlled amounts, permitted to specially appointed trade partners (e.g., the governments that the Chinese throne recognized as legitimate) in the subordinate countries. Officially, it was designated as “tribute” but the Chinese government paid handsome sums for this tribute, and it was, in effect, a complicated closed-trading system which also conferred recognition on native rule
rs who engaged in the tribute trade. As civil war shook the Japanese islands, just who “the government” was became increasingly unclear. In the early sixteenth century, two noble Japanese families arrived in China claiming that status, and the Chinese agreed to trade only with one of them: the Hosokawa (later to refuse Akechi’s advances and take Hideyoshi’s side). Those left out, the Ouchi, were enraged and started a violent rampage in the Chinese port of Ningbo, killing locals and plundering property. The Chinese were unsurprisingly not pleased with a foreign conflict spilling over onto their own soil, and demanded the perpetrators be delivered to them for justice. With no government in Japan able to enforce the Chinese request, nothing happened and eventually the Chinese cut both trade and diplomatic ties with all of Japan. Japanese people were henceforth forbidden to enter Chinese territory on pain of death, and Chinese merchants would suffer the same penalty if they traded with Japan. China’s allies in Korea also tightened trading relations and restricted Japanese traders to one port, Busan, in the southeast. Products that had previously come from China, either from China itself or traded through Chinese ports from destinations as far away as Africa, became hard to come by in Japan. Korean trade also dropped dramatically. The products which became scarce ranged from luxuries such as silk, tiger skins, art, books, ivory and sugar to necessities such as coins, medicines and tea. There were two solutions to this problem: piracy and finding other sources of trade. Asian states that had previously traded only via China now opened up direct relations with Japanese lords and merchants. (As there was no effective central power in Japan, the regional lords and private entities were the ones to negotiate with.) Japanese ships started to range far afield for the first time, establishing Japanese communities and trading hubs in places like Siam (Thailand) and Manila. These “Japan Towns” facilitated a dramatic increase in trade, foreign relations and knowledge of the wider world. There were fortunes to be made in trading both local goods and products such as leather and sugar, and also China-derived goods such as silk; war machines needed to be oiled, and trade was the ideal way to make money. Furthermore, contacts were made now with strange pink and black peoples, the likes of whom many Japanese had never seen or conceived of before. Europeans, having met Chinese and Japanese merchants in Indian and other Asian ports, pressed east to find the source of the silver and silk these men carried with them. Setting foot in East Asia for the first time, they jumped into the intermediary trade too; it was much easier to trade spoilable products over short distances and then simply export the silver westward to trade again for products like spices which fetched a king’s ransom in Europe. The Portuguese were allowed to trade in the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton) and eventually founded a base at Macao nearby. They could therefore get those products from the Chinese that the Japanese so desired, and make a huge profit by trading them. The riches to be made became legendary and the Portuguese Crown reaped the rewards. Thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs, or pirates, also avoiding the shackles of central trade quotas, disappeared mysteriously from southern Chinese ports each year, only to return later with ships filled with Japanese silver, gold, sulfur, art works and weapons. By Yasuke’s time, Japan had become a place central to trade networks in its own right, not only a peripheral state in the Chinese hegemonic sphere. Local extractive and manufacturing industries expanded massively to pay for these imported products: silver, sulfur, copper and manufactures—mainly traditional weapons, but increasingly guns too. As these were new industries, expert help from abroad was sometimes engaged to share knowledge of exploitation techniques. These engineers came mainly from China clandestinely, but Portuguese and others, like Yasuke, also found their skills and knowledge in high demand. The increased income from silver and foreign trade enabled Japanese people to pay for ever more foreign products, thus increasing sophistication and cosmopolitanism in the islands. It also attracted ever more foreigners and adventurers, with skills to sell, to take part in the trade. As the foreign population and their power and influence increased, perceptions of the usefulness of, and of course the threat they posed, changed accordingly. The Japanese became far more open to ideas beyond their traditional mixture of native and Chinese roots and interest in other foreign ideas, products, culture and concepts—such as Christianity—became de rigueur among the ruling classes (“interest in” did not automatically mean acceptance, of course). Yasuke was, in Nobunaga’s mind, a representative of this new feeling in Japan that the world was smaller, more relevant. Yasuke symbolized this in himself, simply by being at Nobunaga’s side, but also proved it to others. It raised Nobunaga up in his supplicants’ eyes and gave him the legitimacy of foreign as well as domestic recognition, connecting him in everyone’s eyes with a world that stretched far beyond a horizon that any Japanese ruler had before conceived of.