Yasuke
16th-century African retainer of Oda Nobunaga · Japan · Religious Figures · Born 1555
Yasuke is read about 1,229 times a day, in 32 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 26 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 94 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?An African man who became a samurai in feudal Japan - not legend, documented fact. For one year he carried a sword in the service of Oda Nobunaga, the warlord who was unifying the country, until the night his lord died by betrayal.
Also in Deutsch
Photos 4
.jpg?width=1200)
About this person
Yasuke arrived in Japan in 1581 with Italian Jesuit Alessandro Valignano. Nobunaga, curious to see a black man, summoned him - then kept him. The warlord gave him a name, a sword, a house, and a stipend: the markers of samurai rank. Yasuke stayed at Nobunaga's side through 1582, fighting at the Honnō-ji Incident when assassins struck and through the death of Nobunaga's son Oda Nobutada. After the bloodshed, he was returned to the Jesuits. No record survives of what came next.
Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.