The main source of the Yasuke story was from Jesuit chronicles and Jesuits were known to make up a lot of crap.(it should be noted that Jesuits were famous for having jewish converts btw and they came from Spain and Protugal that were countries that made their jewish population convert. The current globohomo Pope is a Jesuit incidentally)
. Nobunaga never mentioned Yasuke in his own writings. Which given that Nobunaga would write poems about pretty much anything he laid eyes on, suggests that the two never met. The sole corroborating account stated that one of the jesuits had a black servant, and they presented him as a curiosity to Nobunaga's court, but there is evidence of nothing else.
And here's another strain on historical credulity. Supposedly Yasuke fought for Nobunaga as a samurai(Even at this , this is ridiculous because samurai were the nobility caste you had to be born in to a samurai family to be a samurai , you couldn't just "become one"). One of the claims is that he spoke fluent Japanese.
The time period between when they supposedly met and when Nobunaga was assassinated by Akechi Mitsuhide was... three months.
A black guy from what would now be Morocco, probably a slave to the Jesuits , and someone whose language skills would have included mostly broken Portuguese, supposedly learned one of the most difficult languages on earth in three months. For reference, Japanese has three formal alphabets.
There is nothing about the story that is historically credible. There is more evidence of Santa Claus than there is of Yasuke.
There's a reason why Medieval Japan aggressively expelled the Jesuits and called them spies that were looking to subvert and conquer Japan.
Some of the first foreigners to become samurai and learn Japanese are William Adams who was English and Jan Joosten who was Dutch. Both of them lived and died in Japan, and had many honors. The district around Tokyo Station is actually named after Joosten's Japanese name.
The difference really is stark between how well respected the actual men to become samurai are compared to passing remarks that there might have possibly been a black guy paid by Nobunaga as an amusement or pack mule.
At least William Adams got a great video game series made about him.
Which game series is that? I've played Shogun: Total War and that one seems more like it was taking a period in Japanese history partly popularized by Clavel's book Shogun and running with it. John Blackthorne is Clavel's version of Adams for the book.
The game series is called "Nioh"
Thanks!