What Happened to Yasuke, Japan's Forgotten African Samurai? #History #Mystery
Descrição
In 1581, Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful warlord in Japan, ordered an African man to be scrubbed from the waist up. He wanted to know if the man's skin was painted.
He had arrived with the Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, most likely from Mozambique, and in Kyoto crowds gathered just to see him. Nobunaga's own chronicle, the Shinchō Kōki, describes him as about twenty-six years old and stronger than ten men.
Nobunaga named him Yasuke and gave him a stipend, a house and a sword, and made him an attendant who carried his weapons. A Jesuit wrote that Nobunaga never tired of talking with him.
Fifteen months later, on 21 June 1582, Nobunaga's general Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed him at Honnō-ji. Nobunaga died in the fire. Yasuke went to Nobunaga's heir at Nijō and fought on. When he surrendered, Akechi called him a beast, said he was not Japanese, and spared his life. He was handed back to the Jesuits, and he never appears in the historical record again.
Was he a samurai? The sources record the stipend, the house and the sword, but never use the word itself. Historians still disagree. Tell us what you think in the comments.
Historical artworks shown: portrait of Oda Nobunaga by Kanō Motohide (1583), Nanban screen by Kanō Naizen (c. 1600), and Meiji-era woodblock prints of Honnō-ji. No authentic portrait of Yasuke exists; his likeness in this video is a dramatization.
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#Yasuke #AfricanSamurai #Samurai #OdaNobunaga #JapanHistory #FeudalJapan #HiddenHistory #history #historyshorts #historyfacts
He had arrived with the Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, most likely from Mozambique, and in Kyoto crowds gathered just to see him. Nobunaga's own chronicle, the Shinchō Kōki, describes him as about twenty-six years old and stronger than ten men.
Nobunaga named him Yasuke and gave him a stipend, a house and a sword, and made him an attendant who carried his weapons. A Jesuit wrote that Nobunaga never tired of talking with him.
Fifteen months later, on 21 June 1582, Nobunaga's general Akechi Mitsuhide betrayed him at Honnō-ji. Nobunaga died in the fire. Yasuke went to Nobunaga's heir at Nijō and fought on. When he surrendered, Akechi called him a beast, said he was not Japanese, and spared his life. He was handed back to the Jesuits, and he never appears in the historical record again.
Was he a samurai? The sources record the stipend, the house and the sword, but never use the word itself. Historians still disagree. Tell us what you think in the comments.
Historical artworks shown: portrait of Oda Nobunaga by Kanō Motohide (1583), Nanban screen by Kanō Naizen (c. 1600), and Meiji-era woodblock prints of Honnō-ji. No authentic portrait of Yasuke exists; his likeness in this video is a dramatization.
Faces of History: extraordinary lives, forgotten stories. Subscribe for more.
#Yasuke #AfricanSamurai #Samurai #OdaNobunaga #JapanHistory #FeudalJapan #HiddenHistory #history #historyshorts #historyfacts
Palavra-chave: videos moçambique
