who was Yasuke, the black samurai featured in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed?

Video game fans Assassin’s Creed are used to crossing historical periods. The next episode is supposed to take place in medieval Japan, but the presence of a black samurai in the trailer has concerned some players. Some argue that this is an incorrect representation of history. Is the existence of a black samurai really a historical inconsistency?

False, because this character did exist in Japan at the end of the 16th century. A chronicle of a samurai of the time mentions the famous Yasuke, described as a black man. The story of a French Jesuit relates in particular the conditions of arrival “of a native servant from Mozambique in the archipelago”. He would then have entered the services of this lord Nobunaga, as recalled by a specialist of the period, who specifies that the lord’s entourage was surprised by Yasuke’s build and complexion.

The official chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, written in 1598, also describes Yasuke as a black man who arrived from the land of Christians. Large, powerful and in the service of a Japanese lord, was he a samurai as presented in the video game? Certain historical sources allow us to affirm that Yasuke had the status of samurai, in particular thanks to an allowance paid and by his possession of a sword dedicated to samurai. Historians believe that Yasuke probably did not occupy a prominent position in the samurai hierarchy, but this historical figure did exist.

The chronicle of Lord Nobunaga

Ecclesiastical history of the islands and kingdoms of Japan (in old French)

Diary of Samurai Matsudaira Ietada (in Japanese)

Letters from the Jesuit Luis Frois.

Julien Peltier, author ofAnother samurai story (ed. Perrin).

Pierre-Emmanuel Bachelet, lecturer at ENS Lyon.

Non-exhaustive list