Yasuke
16th-century African retainer of Oda Nobunaga
- Fame60.8
- Momentum6.9
- Japan rank#214
Source-basedRising
- Fame60.8
- Momentum6.9
- Japan rank#214
- Religious Figures rank#77
- Wikipedia53.3K
Born 1555Japan
JapanVerify ownership in 2 minutes. Keeps the profile accurate and discoverable.
Summary
Updated 2026-06-21
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.
Biography
About
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.
Gallery
Photos
4 images · refresh overdue
Where to find them
Platforms
No platforms connected yet.
Claim this profile to add yours →By the numbers
Score breakdown
The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.
Fame
Rising60.8
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum6.9
Historical23.5
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
Receipts
Sources
- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
.jpg?width=1200)
.jpg?width=1200)