Hmm, if that time line is right and no mention of Yasuke until 1719, that places it AFTER the Shimabara Rebellion which was 1637 to 1638 which was a failed uprising that led to the exiling of European Catholics as well as the persecution of Japanese Christians in general though they did get a new friendship with the Dutch since they gave them the guns they needed during the Rebellion...
Since the Jesuits are Catholics, this leads to further evidence that this is fictional propaganda made after the exile to make the previous respected leaders foolish and easily entertained by seeing a Black African guy.
There is not any proof for him to ever have been a Samurai.
The only source that states that Yasuke got a house, a stipend, and a sword and various tools from Nobunaga is in the Maeda family's private Library and is a handwritten copy from 1719 from a famous book we know as the Nobunaga Chronicles, the original was lost in a fire. The complete text of said book was never released to the public, only exerpts.
However, there are around 70 versions which are more or less copies of the Nobunaga Chronicles from that time but different owners/families, sometimes even they only have a few chapters.
And none of the others is even mentioning Yasuke.
Every historian with that background also knows that the copies from the early edo era are far more believable than books which have been written sometimes hundreds of years later as with many other events all over the world where we see the same.
Especially when looking at the history of those owners/families during that time which mostly happened to be well-known noble or Samurai families. They competed against each other for wealth as well as fame, so of course, the same was true for their very own libraries. And it is also true that many of those claims have been falsified later on because earlier sources stated differently than what they have claimed. This does not mean that every of those sources is wrong or lies by default, but mistakes when copying or exaggerations happened quite a lot and so claims from later should be treated especially carefully.
There has not been much or almost no discussion about Yasuke because sources are scarce, so the overall opinion is that he has been historically irrelevant.'
It is also believed that even the claims of the portuguese who went to Japan are more or less questionable. And after Honnoji-incident, after he got returned to the Portuguese, he was not even mentioned anymore at all. Is that really the definition of a Samurai?
And when looking at other well-known Samurais from that time, such as Toyotomi Hideoshi, we also know that they have had 10 years or more being soldiers before being promoted to Samurais. There were other cases of people also having gotten rewards from Nobunaga such as Sumo Wrestlers who entertained him, but those could not even be called Samurai. Nobunaga has been well-known for being a very generous person to people he liked or he was interested in. But this does not mean he would make someone a Samurai.
How should a foreigner with almost zero ability in Japanese reach that in a mere 1.5 years of being with Nobunaga?
I am not denying the claim itself, because one could say from that specific source that it could have been like that and it, in itself, is a valid hypothesis.
However, it is very unlikely and certainly should not be treated as historical fact.
So only one copy of Nobunaga Chronicles written hundreds of years later mention a "Yasuke" whilst none of the 69 others(who were actually written at the time and not hundreds of years later) do. Of course the only other "document" of Yasuke is from the jesuits and we all know those aren't reliable. Think about that only ONE of the 70 versions of Nobunaga Chronicles mentions a "Yasuke" and that version was written hundreds of years later whilst the versions that were written at the time didn't mention a "Yasuke" at all
There is more evidence of Santa Claus than there is of Yasuke. i mean there was only one foreigner guy (A jesuit) that wrote anything about Yasuke at the time , but there is plenty more people who have written about Santa Claus.
Hell there's more historical writings about jews drinking the blood of Christian children than there is of the existence of Yasuke so if anyone wants to use one foreigner guy's writings to say "Yasuke is real " then they will have to accept that all the things written about jews drinking Christian children's blood is also real because there is much more written about that historically than there is that "Yasuke" existed.
Hmm, if that time line is right and no mention of Yasuke until 1719, that places it AFTER the Shimabara Rebellion which was 1637 to 1638 which was a failed uprising that led to the exiling of European Catholics as well as the persecution of Japanese Christians in general though they did get a new friendship with the Dutch since they gave them the guns they needed during the Rebellion...
Since the Jesuits are Catholics, this leads to further evidence that this is fictional propaganda made after the exile to make the previous respected leaders foolish and easily entertained by seeing a Black African guy.
Interesting comment on this video
So only one copy of Nobunaga Chronicles written hundreds of years later mention a "Yasuke" whilst none of the 69 others(who were actually written at the time and not hundreds of years later) do. Of course the only other "document" of Yasuke is from the jesuits and we all know those aren't reliable. Think about that only ONE of the 70 versions of Nobunaga Chronicles mentions a "Yasuke" and that version was written hundreds of years later whilst the versions that were written at the time didn't mention a "Yasuke" at all
There is more evidence of Santa Claus than there is of Yasuke. i mean there was only one foreigner guy (A jesuit) that wrote anything about Yasuke at the time , but there is plenty more people who have written about Santa Claus.
Hell there's more historical writings about jews drinking the blood of Christian children than there is of the existence of Yasuke so if anyone wants to use one foreigner guy's writings to say "Yasuke is real " then they will have to accept that all the things written about jews drinking Christian children's blood is also real because there is much more written about that historically than there is that "Yasuke" existed.