African Samurai by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard

From Paste Magazine:

Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard’s biography of Yasuke, an African slave-turned-mercenary who became Japan’s first foreign-born samurai, is an extraordinary story that feels especially poignant today. Lockley, an associate professor at Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, wrote the first academic paper describing Yasuke’s life. African Samurai adds flesh and blood (and smoke and entrails and steel) to the paper’s bones, chronicling a history that reads like a legend.

When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned (in local tradition) Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society.

African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the 16th century, one whose travels between countries, cultures and classes offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan.

read more here @ Paste Magazine