Book Review: Yasuke: The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai

The remarkable life of history’s first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.

A quite astonishing and meticulously researched biography which isn’t written in an academic style yet is suitable for both the general reader and history buff. Thoroughly engaging it reads like a novel and really does bring Yasuke’s story to life in a way that a purely academic tome could not have done.

In the pre-amble the narrative briefly touches on the aftermath of Akechi Mitsuhide’s overthrow of his liege lord Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji Temple in Kyōto and, as one of Nobunaga’s loyal vassals, Yasuke’s involvement. The story, broken down into three sections; ‘Warrior’, ‘Samurai’, and ‘Legend’, then turns in ‘Warrior’ to the arrival in Japan in 1579