Many Japanese people know him from a children’s story entitled *Kurosuke* (くろ助), written in 1968 by the author Yoshio Kurusu (来栖良夫).
It turns out that this remarkable character actually existed and appears – albeit briefly – in the Shinchô-kô-ki (or Nobunaga-kô-ki 信長公記), the history of the famous general Oda Nobunaga 織田信長 (1534–1582), written in the early 17th century by one of his retainers, ÔTA Gyûichi (or Ushikazu 太田牛一) (1527–1613), who served him faithfully from 1568 until Nobunaga’s death in 1582.
In Chapter 14, which recounts Nobunaga’s activities during the 9th year of the Tenshō era (1581), the encounter with Yasuke unfolds as follows:
そののちの二月廿三日のこと、切支丹国より黒人坊主が参上してきた。この黒人、年の頃は二十六・七と見え、その身の黒きこと牛のごとくであった。 また壮健な身体を持ち、剛力は十人に優れていた。この黒坊主は伴天連が信長公を参礼した際に召し連れてきたものであったが 、信長公の御威光により、こう して古今見及びもせぬ珍物や稀有なる者達を細々と見る機会に恵まれることは、まことに有難きことであった。
“On the 23rd day of the second month, a black servant (kuro-bôzu) from a Christian country came to visit. This man, who must have been between twenty-six and twenty-seven years old, had a body that was entirely black, like an ox. He was robust and possessed the strength of ten men. This black servant was accompanying a Christian priest (bateren) who had come to pay his respects to Lord Nobunaga. Lord Nobunaga thanked him for giving him this opportunity to see, at such close quarters, such a rare and extraordinary person, the like of whom he had never seen before.”
The Christian priest in question was in fact Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606), an Italian Jesuit missionary who arrived in Japan in 1579 to oversee the introduction of Catholicism there. It was he who ensured that the Jesuit missionaries learnt Japanese, and who organised the first delegation of Japanese Christians to Rome in 1582.
This servant, who, depending on the account, was originally from the Congo or Mozambique, had arrived in Japan at the same time as Valignano. He had also learnt a few basics of the language there. This certainly impressed Nobunaga when they met. Wishing to ensure that the colour of his skin was not paint, Nobunaga ordered that he be given a bath. Valignano then presented the servant to him as a gift. Nobunaga made him one of his direct vassals and gave him the name Yasuke 彌介. It is said that he must have been over 1.80 metres tall, which would have made him a giant compared to the average Japanese man of that era.
In 1582, on the second day of the sixth month, one of Nobunaga’s generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, betrayed his lord whilst he was at Honnō-ji Temple in Kyoto, and, after a fierce battle, forced him to commit suicide. At that time, Yasuke was nearby, at Nijō Castle. There, he fought against Mitsuhide’s men alongside Nobutada, Nobunaga’s son. Defeated, Nobutada was also forced to commit suicide. As for Yasuke, Mitsuhide decided not to kill him, considering him not to be human. He gave orders for him to be handed over to the Christian priests.
In Yoshio Kurusu’s book, he is referred to as Karusan Yasuke カルサン弥助, or also Kurosuke くろ助. Kurosuke means ‘black helper’, and Karusan (カルサン/軽袗) comes from the Portuguese word calção, which refers to the type of trousers worn by Westerners at the time (and from which the French word ‘caleçon’ is derived), as in this story, Yasuke is always dressed in Western style.
Yasuke appears in certain taiga dramas, the annual historical series produced by NHK. In *Hideyoshi*, Yasuke dies heroically in battle alongside Nobunaga, and in *Nobunaga, King of Zipangu*, he is seen killing armoured samurai with his bare hands.
Yasuke also features in a book by the fantasy novelist Hideyuki Kikuchi (菊地秀行). Indeed, in the *Kokki Hangon hen* (黒鬼反魂篇, ‘The Book of the Black Demon’s Resurrection’), from the *Makenshi* (魔剣士, ‘The Demon Swordsman’) series, Yasuke is in fact a voodoo priest, capable of creating zombies, who brought about Nobunaga’s downfall.
Here is a drawing inspired by all of this.
