Summary
Japanese Historian Yu Hirayama, who has written several books on the Sengoku period, has weighed in on the controversy surroundingAssassin’s Creed Shadows' Yasuke and stated that there is “no doubt” that he was a samurai in real life.
Considering how long Assassin’s Creed fans have been waiting for a game set in Feudal Japan, you’d think that there would be nothing but happiness when Assassin’s Creed Shadows (formerly known as Red) wasunveiled.That wasn’t the case, though, as the reveal causeda lot of controversy and debate surrounding the game’s use of Yasuke as one of its protagonists.
Beyond the claims that Assassin’s Creed was going “woke” for having a black protagonist, one of the big controversies surrounding the game is Yasuke’s status as a samurai. Although it’s been suggested for some time that Yasuke was a samurai, thesparse number of historical documents about him have caused some to question that claim, especially now that he’s starring in an Assassin’s Creed game.
A Japanese Historian Has Confirmed That Yasuke Was A Samurai In Real Life
Although it’s not hard to figure out why many of those arguments are being made against Yasuke (I’m once again pointing to the “woke” claims), Yasuke’s status as a samurai has become a hot topic over the last few months. It might be time to put the arguments to rest, though, as a Japanese historian with experience in the Sengoku period has argued in favour of Yasuke being a samurai.
The historian in question is Yu Hirayama,who shared his thoughts on the matter in a lengthy Twitter post. In the post, as translated by Google, Hirayama said that even though there aren’t many historical documents about Yasuke, there is “no doubt” that he was a samurai who served Nobunaga.
It seems like there’s a lot of talk about Yasuke, a black man who served Oda Nobunaga. There are very few historical documents about him, but there’s no doubt that he was a “samurai” who served Nobunaga. Regardless of one’s social status, if one’s master promoted one to the rank of “samurai,” one could become one in medieval (warring states) society.
Hirayama says that this is certain because the historical documents state that Nobunaga gave him a stipend, a house, and a sword. Being given a stipend and serving Nobunaga apparently “closely fulfils the important requirements of a “contract between master and servant”, while carrying a sword means that he wasn’t just a servant, who historically weren’t allowed to carry weapons.
Some have argued that Yasuke couldn’t have been a samurai since he wasn’t given a surname, butHirayama points out in another tweet that it’s “highly likely” that Yasuke was going to have been given one in the future. Hirayama suggests that he might have been given one that wasn’t confirmed in historical documents, and that his short time serving Nobunaga might be the reason it wasn’t recorded.
