4.5 stars. Super interesting, well documented account of Yasuke, a 16th century African who, through slavery, traveled to Japan with Portuguese Catholic missionaries, and eventually became a samurai. The text refers to primary source documents both from the Portuguese and the Japanese. When the authors speculate, they make this clear to the reader. ("He almost certainly would have..." Etc.) The final chapter discusses the end of the historical record on Yasuke and presents a few options for what he might have done after what is known, and ends with a survey of the speculative literature Yasuke's story has inspired. As is pointed out in the book, Yasuke's life certainly held its share of trauma. But the overall trajectory of his story, at least as it is known to us, is powerful and hopeful. This is a story that deserves to be more widely known.

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Five feelings while reading this book:

Curiosity about: The true tale of Yasuke, an African in servitude to the Jesuits in Japan as a bodyguard during the 1500s.

Fascination with: The history of religion, daily life, war and politics in feudal Japan.

Discomfort with: The deliberate and calculated reach of Christianity, and some of the ways in which Yasuke was used.

Respect for: Yasuke. It takes strength to survive captivity and servitude, especially as an outsider in a strange land. And he became a bad-ass samurai!

Gratitude for: those who journaled, sent letters and kept records, or else we wouldn't know of Yasuke's existence.

Although it is not historically accurate, it was an interesting point of view on a period in history. It is not a quick read so beware.

5/5

Okay, wow. Wow wow, I mean WOW. Before I explode, let me review.

This nonfiction book centers on the life of Yaskue, one of the first Africans to ever go to Japan around the 1570s. Hired as a bodyguard for a Jesuit Christian, he finds himself feared and respected in the Land of the Rising Sun as a deity since the Christians had not yet taught the Japanese to be racist towards Black people. Bringing guns, lies, and the word of God, the Jesuits barter away their beloved bodyguard to Nobunaga, a terrifying warlord who came to rule Japan and bring it peace (amid some warcrimes, but you get to learn about that as you read.) Yaskue becomes Nobunaga's personal bodyguard, samurai and possibly friend over the years he serves with him. We learn of Yaskue's incredible strength, wit, resourcefulness, honor, and will to stay alive.

I loved this book, adored it, really and would recommend it to anyone who loves Japan as much as I do. Reading this was like reading a prequel to one of my favorite books of life, Shogun (by James Clavell) and seeing where history blurred the lines of fiction in Shogun and what did turn out to be real- and even recognizing a name I know from my favorite movie ever, Kill Bill has solidified this as a favorite book. Only now it's gotten me wanting to reread my blessed Shogun which clocks in at over 1200 pages. This book centers around Yaskue and everyone who affected his life.

This isn't a day by day diary of Yaskue and that would've been impossible anyways considering this is so far back (1570s) and not centering on a man richer than God. Yaskue didn't have a personal chronicler. Therefore, some history is lost so we learn a lot about the men who lived around Yaskue and how that affected our African warrior thus learning more about him. There is no way to talk about Yaskue's life without talking about Nobunaga, Valignano and so many others. Yaskue was a treasure to the Jesuit Christians and the Japanese. He was smart, resourceful, and honorable and I hope he died rich with a lot of wives and children.

I heard criticisms this is false, but history is false in a lot of ways since only rich (mostly white) people write it. So I can't tell you what of this actually happened because I'm not a historian or a time traveler but for me this is everything I've ever wanted in a book period, non fiction or not. I would recommend this regardless it's truthfulness, though with over 20 pages of biblographies I'm sure the authors made this as true as something can be when so much is lost to history.

This took me a while to finish, because it was trying to do two different things and ended up doing neither very well. It seems like this book wants to be an exciting historical fiction, about a warrior entering a strange country where his appearance and skills propel him to the heights of power; it also wants to be a serious historical look at Yasuke's life and era. Unfortunately, the historical discussions keep the narrative from building up to much, and the attempts at a colorful narrative make the history seem slanted towards racism and exoticism. My favorite part of the book was the last sixty pages or so, after the conclusion of Yasuke's story and which of the six black guys in Japan he might have ended up as (which is as awkward as that sounds) -- we get a series of end notes about each chapter where the author explains details about his sources, historical asides that didn't make it into the 'text,' and the thought processes that went into the research, all in a very nice conversational style. I can't say that I really learned anything from reading this -- beyond the fact of Yasuke's existence, I can't shake the feeling that any or all of the details might have been made up for dramatic effect -- but I enjoyed the historiography, and those end notes might be worth consulting for other sources if one was interested.

This book couldn't decide if it wanted to be a biography or historical fiction and ended up failing at both. At first an easy read and very compelling, but it started to feel like the author's personal musings about what Japan was like. Weird and slightly discomfiting to hear constant toutings of exoticism.