Talk:Yasuke/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Protected edit request on 15 May 2024

The currently saved version has a orphaned reference (rfi). Please replace <ref name="rfi"/> with <ref name="rfi">{{cite web|url=http://www.rfi.fr/hebdo/20150102-yasuke-samurai-samourai-etranger-africain-mozambique-japon |website=Rfi.fr |title=Yasuke: le premier samouraï étranger était africain |date=January 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114161630/http://www.rfi.fr/hebdo/20150102-yasuke-samurai-samourai-etranger-africain-mozambique-japon/ |archive-date=January 14, 2020 |language=fr}}</ref>. Thank you. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 21:06, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

there a typo in your replacement link WakandaScholar (talk) 08:39, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

 Partly done: the reference was orphaned by FifteenthClause when they removed a large chunk of text in this edit. I restored the source as it was prior to that edit, it may not line up with your request. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 15:41, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 16 May 2024 (2)

Please italicize "Assassins Creed Shadows" (the title of a game) so it is Assassins Creed Shadows. Thank you! WhisperToMe (talk) 01:11, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

No. It should be made bold to reflect the strength of our people WakandaScholar (talk) 12:32, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

 Done. @WakandaScholar: please stop adding your personal commentary here, it is disruptive. Wikipedia is not an open discussion forum. If you are not here to contribute constructively you will be asked to leave. Thank you. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 15:29, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Yasuke's origin inconsistent language

The current page is inconsitent, currently saying "likely of african origin" in the first line, but then in the 3rd paragraph in birth and early life it says "However, there seems to be no doubt that he had African roots" and then in the same paragraph refers to an source where he was described as from india. I reccomend the second quote mentioned be changed to reflect conflicting accounts, using less definitive language LachlanTheUmUlGiTurtle (talk) 03:07, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

he from the past man language was different back then WakandaScholar (talk) 08:28, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Personal attack warning

I’ve been seeing a lot of personal attacks on this page. Remember to be civil, and watch the personal attacks, and always assume good faith. If I see any more personal attacks on this page, I will go straight to an admin for blocking. Remember, we are all here to contribute. This is a warning. Thank you. Yoshi24517 (mobile) (talk) (Very Busy) 14:57, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Dispute resolution

Hi everyone! Given that the current discussion does not appear to be going anywhere, and has a worse heat/light ratio than an incandescent bulb, may I suggest Wikipedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard as a place to have a more calm and productive discussion with the help of third-party volunteer editors? Chaotıċ Enby (talk · contribs) 15:35, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Whether or not the discourse appears to be "going anywhere" may depend on whether on not one thinks the lead needs to be changed. I personally am fine with the status quo. Marcus Markup (talk) 15:44, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

I think that dispute resolution might be sensible. There are a lot of people commenting who seem quite involved in the issue with fixed views.

Personally I was interested to note that recently the page did not describe Yasuke as a samurai until recently, and I don't think there was much concern about this. It's unfortunate that an advertisement for a video game has led to edit-warring. John Smith's (talk) 13:34, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

I will contend this point that the page did previously mention Yasuke as a Samurai, as evident by past archived versions and by this discussion Talk:Yasuke/Archive 1#Samurai, which did not seem to resolve conclusively and which notes:

"I've re-added the samurai reference (which was almost certainly removed at point in the past, perhaps as an act of vandalism), with multiple reliable sources. natemup (talk) 20:50, 28 April 2021 (UTC)" X0n10ox (talk) 10:53, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Was Yasuke LGBTQ+

WP:NOTFORUM. This page is for discussing changes to the article, not speculating. — The Hand That Feeds You:Bite 17:41, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
It is highly suspected that Oda Nobunaga was LGBTQ+ (having a relationship with his vassal Mori Ranmaru). Is it too far fetched to think that Oda's attraction to Yasuke was more than platonic? Contemporary descriptions are certainly homoerotic ay a minimum: "The blackness of his body is like that of a bull, and he is healthy and of fine physique. Moreover, he has the strength of more than ten men." RepeatedNodger (talk) 16:03, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Fully-protected edit request

Under the "In popular culture" heading, change "On May 15th 2024" to "In May 2024" since the specific date isn't terribly relevant. If we do opt to keep the specific date, it should be changed to "On May 15, 2024". Sock (tock talk) 21:28, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

• Sorry, I don't see what we shouldn't have the date, but I took the opportunity to remove that horrible, passive, fan-like "it was revealed" and other buzzwords. Drmies (talk) 21:31, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

 Not done for now: other than Drmies' tweak; consensus should be confirmed prior to making an edit request. I don't think this is particularly controversial but let's do a quick straw poll. By the way, Sock, when you're adding the {{edit fully-protected}} template you should omit the "Template:" from your code - the curly brackets assume that the page to be transcluded is a template unless you specify a different namespace. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 13:13, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the heads up! Missed it since mobile Wikipedia can be a little rude with talk pages sometimes. I realized a little too late that I was hasty including the "In May" change, but I mostly just wanted the "15th" gone. Didn't realize that some of the other bullets don't have specific dates associated, so I'm totally good with leaving the full dates where applicable. Sock (tock talk) 13:43, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Straw poll: date format in popular culture

Should the dates given for entries in the "in popular culture" bullet list be:

1. all given in "month, year" format (e.g. "In May 2024 ..."); or
2. given with specific days when the dates can be verified (e.g. "On 17 May 2024 ..."), and "month, year" otherwise?

-- Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 13:13, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Option 2, just for the sake of having the information we can have. Uniformity doesn't really bring anything here. Chaotıċ Enby (talk · contribs) 18:27, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Option 2, if we can get specific days it's easier to narrow down. Hopefull Innformer (talk) 23:18, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Fully-protected edit request

In the "Birth and early life" section, can I suggest that:

"Among those whose names have been ascertained, he is the earliest African to appear in Japanese historical records, but his confirmed period of stay in Japan was very short – about three years, from 17 August 1579 to 21 June 1582."

Be reworded to simply:

"Among those whose names have been ascertained, he is the earliest African to appear in Japanese historical records. His confirmed period of stay in Japan was about three years, from 17 August 1579 to 21 June 1582."

This is as I think describing a three year stint in another country as "very short" is a bit misleading. McPhail (talk) 09:02, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 13:21, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

@Ivanvector: - from the below discussion, I think there is now a broad consensus in favour of this change? McPhail (talk) 07:08, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

I commented in favour of the change so I'm not a neutral observer, but I'd say yes, the majority of comments are in favour of not editorializing about the length of his time in Japan. But also the page protection has been lowered and anyone who has commented here is able to make the change themselves. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 12:47, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

@Ivanvector - ah thank you, sorry I hadn't spotted that. McPhail (talk) 16:27, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Agree per MOS:EDITORIAL, just state the facts. Also “with only fragmentary accounts” should be changed to “with fragmentary accounts”.—TriiipleThreat (talk) 10:36, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

The use of "only" is a fact too, as we only have fragments of accounts to go by, the word "only" is not changing in any way the amount of accounts of an individual specially when there is a few of them, and removing it doesn't make the statement any less or more credible or clearer. Hopefull Innformer (talk) 11:14, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

In what sense is it a fact? Do the sources say "only"? If not this is just an editor's opinion. McPhail (talk) 18:36, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Is a fact since literally the only times we hear about Yasuke is on the Jesuits writings, the primary source (Shinchō kōki), are the only few places Yasuke is even mentioned nothing else, again the use of the word only is not in any way reshaping or inserting any bias of any kind, if in a book the only place a character is mentioned is on volume 4 & 8, and a few mentions thought the story sayin "Oh he only appears on volume 4 & 8" is in no way misleading. Hopefull Innformer (talk) 23:14, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

”Only” adds unneeded and perhaps biased emphasis that is not included in the original source.—TriiipleThreat (talk) 16:57, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

I would say is accurate to say 3 years is short, some believe 5 year is short, the mention of "very short" does not change nor distort the fact that Yasuke stayed just for three years. Hopefull Innformer (talk) 11:11, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

In these cases we should go to the citation(s). Does the source state or imply any opinion about the length of the stay, or are we just giving our own opinions? The citation for this is in Japanese so I'm of no help interpreting it, but otherwise I agree with the request - we cannot state conclusions that don't appear in the source. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 13:21, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

For the record his stay specifically under Nobunaga was only recorded between a period of about 15 months, from Luis Frois audience with Nobunaga in March 27, 1581 to the Honno-ji Incident on June 21, 1582. I know this is more in general to his total length stay in Japan but it really drives the point that he was not around for very long when he was most notable. For context it often takes months or even years to conquer or siege castles, most notably Nobunaga's sieges on Nagashima which took place in about a period of 3 years, so it is not unreasonable to suggest that Yasuke was not around for very long based off of how long these campaigns often take during this time, especially since he is only recorded in a single fight in Honno-ji. Hexenakte (talk) 19:12, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

But when does a stint in Japan go from being "very short" to "short" to "medium" to "long"? These are all totally subjective descriptors. Why not just stick to the facts and state the duration? McPhail (talk) 09:10, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

This is basically my point. We can go round and round all day and night justifying whether this was "very short" or "a normal amount of time" or whatever, but it doesn't matter unless there's a source that agrees. Even if it was in a source it would be someone's opinion, unless there are many sources that make a point of calling out this duration as "short". Without sources, any description of the stay is unsourced opinion and original research. The article should simply give the duration, and readers can form their own conclusions. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 15:53, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Agree too, if the citations don't call it "very short", we shouldn't either. "But" as a conjunction between the two statements is also WP:EDITORIAL and shouldn't be there either. Chaotıċ Enby (talk · contribs) 18:31, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

I would add that if we don't have sources, but editors say we don't need them because it's obviously "short" then the obvious (:-P) response to this is we don't need to say it since it's obvious so anyone reading it will realise wow that's short. Nil Einne (talk) 13:36, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Strange article-text

"The name Yasuke was given to him by Nobunaga. His real name is unknown, and it is also unclear what he was called before that."

So it's unclear what he was called before he had his real name?

"Few details are known about him, including his date of birth, family structure, place of birth, ethnicity and native language."

Is this supposed to mean "His date of birth, family structure, place of birth, ethnicity and native language are unknown."? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:21, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

"Luís Fróis's Annual Report on Japan states that Nobunaga also longed to see a black man, and summoned him, and Fr. Organtino took him to him and that Nobunaga, seeing a black man for the first time"

Is this supposed to mean "Luís Fróis's Annual Report on Japan states that Nobunaga also longed to see a black man, and summoned [Yasuke], and Fr. Organtino took [Yasuke] to [Nobunaga] and that Nobunaga, seeing a black man for the first time"? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:27, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

+1 to all of these. Especially the "few details are known" sentence. I asked about that one a few days ago already on this talk page, but the section got completely derailed and then removed. Irrwichtel (talk) 13:46, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Fixed first and third. As for the second, yes it is supposed to mean that, but leaving the "Few details...including..." part in lets the reader know that there are more unknowns about Yasuke. ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 00:49, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

@ARandomName123 Doesn't it logically read as that the details that are mentioned are the details that are known? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:15, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Oh right, I see what you mean. Changed it to match your suggestion. Thanks! ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 18:00, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

"Speculated depictions of Yasuke"

Just not idiomatic English. Can we change this to "Possible depictions of Yasuke"?

(I really think this is a non-controversial edit, so I've gone ahead and templated this request.)

-- Isaac Rabinovitch (talk) 09:07, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

 Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 13:25, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Clarification on method

I've been trying to read the comments to understand the issues with this page, and people seem to answer to "the consensus among historians is that Yasuke was a samurai" with "yeah, but I know better, here's my reasoning". If there's a consensus among historians, and historians have literally published books about Yasuke being a samurai, shouldn't WP just follow their lead? Can someone point what the written policy is on that? Nowhere man (talk) 09:20, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Can someone point what the written policy is on that?

WP:V and WP:NOR, the essay Wikipedia:Verifiability, not truth contains some clarifications. Thibaut (talk) 09:59, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

To be clear, only one "scholarly" source, that is, Thomas Lockley, has actually written on Yasuke as a "historical account". It's all the tertiary sources reposting Lockley's work that makes it bigger than it actually is. I have not heard anything about historians reaching a consensus on Yasuke being a samurai, and I don't think anyone claimed that. That being said, I will point you to my big post replying to _dk at Talk:Yasuke#Samurai_status explaining the issues with Lockley and why his book on Yasuke is not reliable. So far the only defense ran on Lockley is based off of "technically meeting the criteria to be considered a reliable source" based off of Wikipedia rules and it has been admitted among those here still defending him that his book is not actually academic. In this case I have invoked that we WP:IAR and use WP:COMMONSENSE in regards to this because there is no "reputable" secondary source on Yasuke, or atleast no other secondary sources have been proposed other than Lockley. Hexenakte (talk) 01:34, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I don't think you have to rely on the pretty weak argument of using WP:IAR to dismiss using Lockley as a reliable source in this article. Lockley's work is a textbook example of a WP:QUESTIONABLE source based on what other secondary sources have said about his writings and per WP:QUESTIONABLE: "Questionable sources are generally unsuitable for citing contentious claims about third parties, which includes ... persons living or dead". RomeshKubajali (talk) 01:57, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I will admit, since I have mentioned this before, I am new to the Wikipedia platform so I am not entirely well versed in the rules, so I appreciate the input, and I think you are correct. I just was not impressed with the arguments others were using what was essentially loopholes to justify Lockley's inclusion as a "reliable" secondary source. Hexenakte (talk) 02:02, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I want to note that "academic" is not a requirement for a source to be considered reliable on Wikipedia. Much of the contention of Lockley points back to an archive of the Talk Page. Chiefly, to Talk:Yasuke#Lockley_2016,_Lockley_2017,_and_Lockley_2019 Which is being handwaved to by individuals claiming that it discredited Lockley as a source. Firstly, Lockley remained on the Yasuke page as a source for years after the conversation happened. Secondly, the discussion of the Lockley that occurred does not once state that the Lockley she be dismissed except for a comment which was struckthrough from assuming it was just a historical fiction piece.

Directing to the wording on WP:QUESTIONABLE

Questionable sources are those with a poor reputation for checking the facts or with no editorial oversight. Such sources include websites and publications expressing views that are widely acknowledged as extremist, that are promotional in nature, or that rely heavily on rumors and personal opinions.[9] Questionable sources are generally unsuitable for citing contentious claims about third parties, which includes claims against institutions, persons living or dead, as well as more ill-defined entities. The proper uses of a questionable source are very limited.

The book is published by a reputable publisher. It has been reviewed in an Academic Journal by a Historian whose chief criticism of the book was that it wasn't as valuable of a resource to Academics as it could have been had the book utilized in-text citations, but again, the reviewer does not contend the veracity of the scholarship. Furthermore, it is not a "website" or "publication" expressing a view that is widely acknowledged as extremist, nor is it promotional in nature. Moreover, it also specifies for "citing contentious claims about third parties, which includes claims AGAINST institutions, persons living or dead, as well as more ill-defined entities" (emphasis my own).

Stating that Yasuke was a Samurai is not contentious, and had not been contentious until a certain video game was announced and people arrived on Wikipedia to argue about it, nor are works which say Yasuke "was a Samurai" making a claim against him. Factually, the Lockley is widely cited across multiple sources that Wikipedia deems as reputable, and it isn't the only secondary source that mentions Yasuke as a Samurai.

Even if you want to contend that Yasuke was not a Samurai, by Wikipedia:Reliable sources and Wikipedia:NPOV the view still has to be represented that sources do call him a Samurai, and I quote: "Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published sources, making sure that all majority and significant minority views that have appeared in those sources are covered" Extra emphasis my own.

There is an entire documentary about Yasuke that refers to him as a Samurai

More about Lockley who is apparently being written off by Wikipedia, but not by Japanese organizations themselves, which note:

"Professor Thomas Lockley is an Associate Professor at Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo. He has researched and published on a number of historical figures, but is primarily known for his work on Yasuke, which has been featured in Japan on NHK, BS-TBS, TV Tokyo, and Fuji Television as well as receiving many notable reviews including in print media such as Bungeishunju, Shukan Bunshun, Shukan Asahi, and Mainichi Shinbun. The English language version of his book, co-authored with Geoffrey Girard, African Samurai, was released by Hanover Square Press (Harper Collins) in the USA in April 2019. It received wide coverage, including being named by Publishers Weekly as one of the most eagerly anticipated books of 2019, and has been featured by many global media outlets including Time Magazine, the BBC, CNN, Euro News, and the Washington Post."

Lockley's book was reviewed by John Rodzvilla of Emerson College in "Library Journal. Mar 2019, Vol. 144 Issue 2, p128-128", with Rodzvilla writing:

Lockley (Nihon Univ., Sch. of Law, Tokyo) and Girard (Cain’s Blood) use primary sources to piece together Yasuke’s immersion into Japanese culture with a novelistic history that takes place at the height of one of Japan’s most important cultural and political moments. While the authors may take some liberties with Yasuke’s narrative, they do so with attention to their source material and the culture of the time. The story involves several figures alongside Yasuke, including samurai, ninjas, and Catholic missionaries. VERDICT With fast-paced, action-packed writing, Lockley and Girard offer a new and important biography and an incredibly moving study of medieval Japan and solid perspective on its unification. Highly recommended

And again, in "Library Journal. Winter 2019, Vol. 144 Issue 12, p80-80" as an "Essential Title in Social Studies". And again, the book not being "academic enough" isn't even a qualification for a source to be reliable on Wikipedia Per WP:SCHOLARSHIP:

"Try to cite current scholarly consensus when available, recognizing that this is often absent. Reliable non-academic sources may also be used in articles about scholarly issues, particularly material from high-quality mainstream publications" (Emphasis Mine).

Likewise, Lockley's book has been at multiple academic talks and is in Academic Libraries and in professional development reading groups.

Furthermore, Lockley has been subject to external attention related to GamerGate which has sought to discredit his work, which I feel is important to keep in mind.

The Lopez-Vera, meanwhile, has been cited 20 times in its original spanish and 3 times in English.

You can hardly argue that Lockley's claim that Yasuke is a Samurai is contentious or going against Academic consensus.

Article in this Journal refers to Yasuke as a Samurai

And this one

And Warren A. Stanislaus, PhD refers to Yasuke as a Samurai in this journal.

A companion website for the book "A History of Popular Culture in Japan, From the Seventeenth Century to the Present" lists "Sumō yūrakuzu byōbu (1605), screen painting possibly depicting Yasuke, the “African Samurai”" X0n10ox (talk) 06:34, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

I am going to repost something I have already posted elsewhere in the talkpage in regards to the only "scholarly" source being Lockley:

"It is worth pointing out that henceforth he was no longer a slave, since he received a salary for being in the daimyō’s service and enjoyed the same comforts as other vassals. He was granted the rank of samurai and occasionally even shared a table with Nobunaga himself, a privilege few of his trusted vassals were afforded" (109).
— * Lopez-Vera, Jonathan (2020). A History of the Samurai. Tokyo ; Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 4-8053-1535-0. OCLC 1156626219.

Published by Dr. Jonathan Lopez-Vera, who holds a PhD in Japanese History and an MA in World History from Pompeu Fabra University. His book, "A History of the Samurai" was originally published in Spanish as "Historia de los samuráis" in 2016 by Satori Ediciones, and published again in 2021 by Alianza Editorial.

X0n10ox (talk) 04:53, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

This is probably going to be a long reply so for the ease of following it I will respond to your main points in the order that you made them. I will also preface this by saying I'm talking only about Lockley as I have not taken a look at Lopez-Vera 2020 at the time of writing (but will do so afterwards).

RE: "Academic"

I would say Lockley is academic (or at least some of his books are) and you are certainly correct that being academic is not a pre-requisite for being considered reliable. I would note however that just because something is academic, that does not automatically make it reliable; WP:SCHOLARSHIP shows this to be the case (even though not discussed in this reply, it demonstrates a general point before I explain my full stance later RE: reliability and verifiability).

Lockley remained on the Yasuke page as a source

This has no bearing on whether Lockley is reliable or verifiable so I assume you bring it up to call out a contradiction in not using him to call Yasuke a Samurai but using him as a source for other purposes. I will respond based on this assumption but please correct me if my assumption is wrong.

I'm not going to go through the entire history of the Yasuke page since the Talk in question happened so I will only comment on how Lockley is used in the article in it's current state at the time of writing.

The first usage is in citation 8: Lockley 2017, pp. 200–202. This citation is used once on the page in the notes section after the phrase "However, these are their speculations and have no basis" to caveat what a Japanese language article said RE: Lockley's speculation on Nobunaga's naming of Yasuke. This note gives due weight to a minor aspect and properly states an opinion as such. Using Lockley as a source here falls under WP:ABOUTSELF.

The second usage is in citation 20: Lockley 2017, p. 65. This citation is used once on the page after the sentence "Nobunaga's nephew gave him a sum of money at this first meeting". This sentence is backed up by an additional citation so even though/if Lockley is an unreliable source for anything other than WP:ABOUTSELF, the sentence is still verifiable and can remain. I do support removing Lockley as a source in this instance.

The third usage is in citation 27: Lockley 2017, pp. 147–148. It is used once on the page in the Possible depictions of Yasuke section. This inclusion of Lockley's opinion on a piece of art is in a section dedicated to recording speculations. The same points from my paragraph on citation 8 mostly apply here too; namely: it follows WP:DUE, WP:VOICE and is WP:ABOUTSELF.

Those are all the instances of Lockley being directly used as a source, if I missed something please bring it up and I will comment on that too.

Is Lockley WP:QUESTIONABLE?

First sentence of WP:QUESTIONABLE: "Questionable sources are those with a poor reputation for checking the facts or with no editorial oversight". The issue is Lockley doesn't have a reputation just for not checking facts, he has a reputation for creating them out of apparently nothing. No other sources exist, besides tertiary ones which themselves cite Lockley, to support many substantial claims made by Lockley. Meanwhile he barely gives any indication of what sources he read to support such claims:

The afterward lists chapter-by-chapter “Selected Readings” of primary and secondary sources, but no direct citations. The omission of citations is not necessarily a question a veracity of the scholarship, but the authors frequently go into detail about Yasuke and his personal reactions, like his kidnapping from Africa and his sword fight with a young enemy samurai, with no cited documentation. Likewise, there is no discussion of the evidence that explains how, in just fifteen months, Yasuke and Nobunaga developed such a close relationship (Purdy, R. W., 2020)

The second sentence of WP:QUESTIONABLE is a non-exhaustive list of examples of questionable sources. Lockley doesn't really fall in to any of these examples.

Third and fourth sentence of WP:QUESTIONABLE: "Questionable sources are generally unsuitable for citing contentious claims about third parties, which includes claims against institutions, persons living or dead, as well as more ill-defined entities. The proper uses of a questionable source are very limited". Regarding the contentious element, you said, "Stating that Yasuke was a Samurai is not contentious, and had not been contentious until a certain video game was announced and people arrived on Wikipedia to argue about it". Respectfully, you have it mixed up; Stating that Yasuke was a Samurai has been contentious since it was first brought up on the Talk page, long before the culture war caused by the Assassin's Creed Shadows leak. Every time a discussion was had on Lockley's claim that Yasuke was a Samurai, the conclusion was he wasn't and that Lockley was a poor source. You also said: "nor are works which say Yasuke "was a Samurai" making a claim against him". The list is non exhaustive; a claim does not necessarily have to be against an entity to be contentious, it is just an example of what would be contentious.

The view still has to be represented that sources do call him a Samurai

I completely agree. It is absolutely as significant minority view that Yasuke was a Samurai. This view should be reflected in the article. I am not sure what section it would go under as it doesn't really seem to fit any of the section headings but that's something that could be figured out once/if consensus is established. In actually writing the text for the article there are also many NPOV issues which should be discussed but I digress.

I've been writing for a while so I'll leave it there. If there are any specific points I did not cover that you think I ought to have please let me know. RomeshKubajali (talk) 19:55, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

The problem with stating "Stating that Yasuke was a Samurai has been contentious since it was first brought up on the Talk page, long before the culture war caused by the Assassin's Creed Shadows leak" is that it's not entirely true. As noted by the talk section about Samurai, the article, specifically:

You're picking arbitrary dates. The article began by calling him a samurai, and has referred to him as such at various points since. I was restoring a previous version that should supersede later (and unilateral, undiscussed) edits that were based on original research and a definition not found in any source used in the article. Merriam-Webster states that a samurai is a retainer under a daimyo, which throughout this dispute the article has unequivocally claimed Yasuke to be (based on the exact same sources that say he was a samurai).
— User:Natemup 17:09, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

Natemup, I haven't looked at the sources in-depth, but I am so far inclined to agree with you that the lead should describe Yasuke as a samurai. The body could note that there is some disagreement on the matter. I also agree that "Afro-centric" was a bizarre and POV statement to add.
— User:Firefangledfeathers 17:48, 6 May 2021 (UTC)

Concerning the matter at hand—that of sources, rather than cherry-picked dictionary entries—virtually every source cited in the article refers to Yasuke as a samurai. Full stop. It is literally the reason the article was created and is the warp and woof of Yasuke's significance. This has been obscured by an unsourced edit from 2019 that insisted on a hereditary definition of "samurai"—which is one of at least two, the other of which was cited above (and swiftly no-true-Scotsman'ed) by Hijiri. And lest anyone be misled, the article has been categorized under ~"foreign samurai" throughout this entire brouhaha, since well before I ever got involved, indicating the original state of the article before vandalism took hold. Hijiri has also deemed what would be considered a reliable source on any other article as unreliable here, even scholars whose work is *already* cited in the article without controversy. Thus three additional reliable sources I added have been removed, while the obvious original research seen above from Hijiri is being represented in the article at present without justification
— User:natemup 04:28, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

I would like to point at this time that the main opponent to the re-addition of Samurai to the article in 2021, was Hijiri 88, who struck his opposition:

I'm out Please consider all my comments on this page stricken. I will support whatever the consensus of editors other than myself decides upon. Regardless of what said consensus is, so be it.
— User:Hijiri 88 10:02, 30 May 2021 (UTC)

Again, we're re-arguing a settled matter here Re: Lockley, again directing to Talk:Yasuke/Archive_1#Slave_or_Servant

Attribution is required for any challenge statement for Wikipedia:Verifiability, so I simply say that this needs attribution and a source. Lockley disputes it, and while you may not agree, he still is a published scholar, even if you don't like him. But most of all, I am concerned with the lack of sources stating that he is a slave, since all we've got so far is the non-scholarly documentary.
— User:Eccekevin 00:44, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

At the end of the day, my point is not that "Yasuke should be named a Samurai", my point is merely that there is a number of publications that list Yasuke as a Samurai, and there is a modern understanding that Yasuke was a Samurai which does not seem to be contended as nobody has furnished any secondary sources conclusively arguing that Yasuke wasn't a Samurai. My point of bringing up the usage of Lockley throughout the article is the fact that we are dismissing a handful of sources because "they're based on the Lockely", but as I've pointed out in Talk:Yasuke#Sources Discussion there are a handful of sources presently in use on the page that utilize Lockley as their source. Likewise, there are multiple sources in the citation list that flat-out call Yasuke a Samurai. To plug our ears and not even acknowledge that some sources call Yasuke a samurai is blatantly violating Wikipedia:NPOV.

Do I think the article should say "Yasuke was a Samurai"? Probably not. Should the Article probably say something like "Although the historical documents are inconclusive, some scholars contend that Yasuke was a Samurai"? Yes, because it is an accurate representation of the situation. Even if the Lockley is dismissed entirely, the Lopez-Vera book still refers to Yasuke as a Samurai, has been cited multiple times in Spanish, is touted by his University, and was written by an academic whose doctoral degree is in Japanese History specifically. WP:HSC does say that "Popular equivalents of the above published by historians who normally publish in the scholarly mode" are valid history sources.

Likewise, "Historical articles on Wikipedia should use scholarly works where possible, Where scholarly works are unavailable, the highest quality commercial or popular works should be used."

Even in terms of the Lockley, the "highest quality commercial or popular works should be used" is still applicable to Lockley. It is commercially published by a legitimate publishing house. It has received high praise by the Library Journal, and a generally favorable review by R.W Purdy, who, again, does not dispute the veracity of the book nor does he recommend against the book. Since there are no scholarly works available, as everyone has helpfully pointed out, we turn to "the highest quality commercial of popular works". Dismissing Lockley on the grounds of he doesn't use in-text citations but keeping a bunch of random web articles hardly seems to be keeping with the premise of "highest quality commercial or popular works", especially when several of those sources reference or cite the Lockley themselves.

My point as to Lockley remaining on the page is the fact that if Lockley was determined unreliable and that it should be driven from the page and all sources that cite Lockley are unreliable, why did several sources that reference Lockley remain and why does Lockley remain cited on the page? If Lockley's claim is only there because it is supported by another source, but Lockley is unreliable, should the Lockley not just be removed and the supporting source be left in its place?

Even in terms of the "Questionable Sources" section that you quoted, the next section reads:

Such sources include websites and publications expressing views widely considered by other sources to be promotional, extremist, or relying heavily on unsubstantiated gossip, rumor, or personal opinion. Questionable sources should be used only as sources for material on themselves, such as in articles about themselves; see below. They are not suitable sources for contentious claims about others.

Which, again "considered by other sources to be promotional, extremist, or relying heavily on unsubstantiated gossip, rumor, or personal opinion". The "considered by other sources", I feel, is an important fact which is being left out. Original Research by Wikipedia Editors does not constitue other sources making an argument that Lockley is "relying heavily on unsubstantiated gossip, rumor, or personal opinion", nor does the R.W Purdy review state that it relies heavily on "unsubstantiated gossip, rumor, or personal opinion". Purdy does not once in his review go to the lengths of saying the book relies on unsubstantiated rumor, gossip, or opinion. He even says Re: the section quoted about Nobunaga getting close to Yasuke in just 15 months:

"Was it just Yasuke’s height and skin color? Presumably, much of this might come from Frois or be based on reasonable speculation, but, without specific references, details often seem like creative embellishments, rather than historical narrative." His statement is that it can be presumed to be based off of the Frois, but without specific citations, it can seem like embellishments. He is, notably, not outright saying that Lockley is unsubstantiated or that it is outright creative embellishments, merely that without citations they SEEM like creative embellishments. It would be hard to argue that these statements indicate that Purdy believes the entire book to rely "heavily on unsubstantiated gossip, rumor, or personal opinion". I would also like to add that [[1]] this source utilized on the Wikipedia List of Foreign Born Samurai lists Yasuke as a Samurai, and predates the earliest publication of Lockley being as the page was published in 2015 and Lockley's first mention of Yasuke as a Samurai came in 2016. X0n10ox (talk) 23:43, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Do I think the article should say "Yasuke was a Samurai"? Probably not. Should the Article probably say something like "Although the historical documents are inconclusive, some scholars contend that Yasuke was a Samurai"? Yes, because it is an accurate representation of the situation.

If this is your position I basically agree with you on what the article should say. I disagree with a large portion of your arguments, and I think you've made some arguments I already covered in my previous reply, but there's little point in arguing it out if we pretty much agree on what the article should say. If you want to make a new topic to try to get consensus for a change to this effect I would happily add my support (even if I disagreed on certain specifics of the proposal). If you don't want to go down this route, but would be willing to support me, then I could make the new topic myself tomorrow. RomeshKubajali (talk) 00:51, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

I'm willing to support you. While we are arriving at the same conclusion through different means, it's the same conclusion nevertheless. X0n10ox (talk) 05:39, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

Precisely what some of us are saying on this section is that the historians that you could "argue" have a consensus, of which Lockley seems to have the spotlight due to some of his books, of Yasuke being a Samurai are most likely engaging in a very lax use of Japanese words who aren't really interchangeable, like Hexe and some have explained if there is a clear distinction on the use of words otherwise, historians should've called Hideyoshi a Samurai WAY before he became an ACTUAL Samurai but they didn't why? Because he wasn't one, neither was Yasuke nor Williams but that's because again the lax usage of some translated Japanese words being used, some people/historians(on reddit(I'm not sure how much legitimacy they have since apparently you need credential to post there as an 'historian') and twitter) believe that Samurai were just 'full-time' soldiers, which is just not true nor accurate, also Wikipedia:Verifiability, not truth. Hopefull Innformer (talk) 23:20, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

WP:!TRUTHFINDERS I am just going to put this here for you once again.

"Wikipedia doesn't reproduce verbatim text from other sources. Rather, it summarizes content that some editor(s) believes should belong in the Wikipedia article in the form of an encyclopedic summary that is verifiable from reliable sources. This process involves editors who are not making claims that they have found truth, but that they have found someone else who is making claims that they have found truth. If there is more than one set of facts or explanations for the facts in the article, there's a guideline for that where multiple points of view (Wikipedia's term for versions of truth) are included.

Wikipedia editors are not indifferent to truth, but as a collaborative project written primarily by amateurs, its editors are not making judgments as to what is true and what is false, but what can be verified in a reliable source and otherwise belongs in Wikipedia."

It is not the job of Wikipedia editors to determine if their usage of Japanese is lax, or what the English understanding of a Samurai is. X0n10ox (talk) 23:58, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

As a counterargument, we do have a responsibility to be clear in how we are using words, and also to be clear in how the sources we present are using those words.

What do we mean by "samurai", as used in this article? That is not clear, and this lack of clarity seems to underlie most of the disagreements visible on this page.

If we can clearly define what "samurai" means for the purposes of this article, and show how that intersects (or doesn't) with the definitions and/or usage of "samurai" by our references, then I suspect that much of this disagreement about Yasuke being or not being a "samurai" may well resolve. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:02, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

My final comment on this matter, or any matter on Wikipedia, is that I would contend the way we use "samurai" is pretty clearly defined on Wikipedia. Samurai#Terminology:

• "During the Sengoku period, the traditional master-servant relationship in Japanese society collapsed, and the traditional definition of samurai changed dramatically, becoming synonymous with bushi. jizamurai (地侍) were bushi with the status of nanushi (名主), the highest class in the village who managed the farmland, and many of them became vassals of the sengoku daimyo (戦国大名, feudal lords). On the other hand, it also referred to local bushi who did not serve the shogun or daimyo."

As well as with the article also stating "historical sources make it clear that bushi and samurai were distinct concepts, with the former referring to soldiers or warriors and the latter referring instead to a kind of hereditary nobility" Beyond that we, the editors, mean and say nothing. The sources speak for themselves.

X0n10ox (talk) 05:56, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

The problem is that no, the sources don't speak for themselves.

We have unclear and apparently conflicting uses of "samurai" in the various sources that editors have brought forward here. Inasmuch as Lockley has clarified how he uses the term "samurai", it appears to disagree with our definition as you've quoted here. If we take Lockley's definition of "samurai" and apply it to our content, without qualification or explanation that his definition does not match our definition, then all we are doing is further muddling an already confused issue. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 22:21, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

Remove the "kosho" title.

Hopefully this is uncontroversial but I think we should remove the "kosho" lead, unfamiliar Japanese titles shouldn't be thrown around when there's no scholarly sources backing it up. JP wiki doesn't use this term and the sources supporting it are a short clickbait "Japaaan" article plus an entertainment article talking about a possible Yasuke movie starring Chadwick Boseman. "He was retained by the daimyō as a koshō" could be changed to "He was retained in the daimyō's service", and "Yasuke followed Nobunaga to Azuchi in Omi Province, where he was appointed a koshō" could be changed into "Yasuke followed Nobunaga to Azuchi in Omi Province, where he was retained in his service." or something of the like. Meeepmep (talk) 11:59, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

I agree that the sources given thus far that he was kosho do look unreliable. Are there any more reliable ones that he was granted the rank? That would be preferable to removing the reference entirely. John Smith's (talk) 13:15, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

It's pretty dubious that he was ever granted that rank, when none of the few primary sources that mention him describe him as such. Wiki editors that defend this title admit that it is inference, but can't seem to find scholarly sources backing this up. Thomas Lockley, the preeminent "Yasuke expert" doesn't mention the title his book African Samurai either. Meeepmep (talk) 06:54, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

That's reasonable. I made edits cleaning that section up previously to clear out similarly unreliable language and failed to adequately check the reliability of the claim he was a koshō so this is a good catch. FifteenthClause (talk) 18:15, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

From u/ParallelPain's own words: "FYI no source say Yasuke was actually a 小姓". Thibaut (talk) 21:56, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

I'm just going to go ahead and change it now that the article is semi-protected. Meeepmep (talk) 10:02, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Translation of the extract from the Shinchō Kōki

The extract in the article states that Yasuke "appears to be 26 or 27 years old" which is also supported by the translation done by /r/ParallelPain on Reddit.

The other citation provided (intojapanwaraku.com) says "年齢は20歳代前半" (early twenties).

However, this academic paper from the Kyoto University, which cites another paper, translates the age as "around sixteen or seventeen years of age".

The original text is provided here, correct me if I'm wrong but "廿六七" means "26 or 27".

--Thibaut (talk) 20:36, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Per the paper in question, its source for saying that Yasuke is 16 or 17 is "Fujita, Midori. 1987a. "Nihonshi niokeru 'Kurobo' no Tojo: Afurika Orai kotohajime" (Early History of Afro-Japanese Relations: People Called Kurob6 in the Sixteenth Century), Hikaku Bungaku Kenkyet 51, 28 — 51."

This article which also lists the Fujita as a reference says "26-27".

Without access to the Fujita itself, it would seem the paper saying he was 16 or 17 is the outlier. X0n10ox (talk) 09:14, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. Thibaut (talk) 09:16, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

The Tono Notation

I am requesting someone to provide a Wikipedia:Reliable sources for the notation "It is assumed that 'tono' in this case means a high position among the samurai, as a lord of a castle would be too high a position" or, failing that, to remove it per Wikipedia:No original research.

Added by this revision [2] with 0 comment, explanation, or discussion. The entire mention of "tono" does not exist until this particular revision, and while we can see in the primary historical documents where Fróis writes about suspecting Nobunaga wanted to make Yasuke a "tono", the editor provided no citation or evidence to assert the assumption in the notation. I do not think H:NOTES is the appropriate place for editors to spin their speculation about what Fróis, or Nobunaga, meant by "tono". X0n10ox (talk) 02:27, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

In a letter from Lorenzo Mesia, October 8, 1581, it is mentioned that 'Nobunaga would make him [Yasuke] a tono [meaning lord or sir]' which certainly signifies high social status. This, along with the high trust Nobunaga had by permitting him to carry a weapon and providing him with a stipend makes it very likely that he would have been socially classed as Samurai.

Looks like JuliusRoxas made this statement in the talk page above, so this is presumably the reference in question, though it doesn't appear to include the "likely not to mean a lord of a castle" part. That appears to be WP:OR speculation. Silverseren^C 02:37, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Yes, that statement was made, but there is nothing about the assumption which does make it strictly editorializing by whomever added it. Moreover, I am going to correct the text of the article because presently it says "Frois writes", when very clearly Frois didn't write it. We can see the letter [3] in its original Portuguese here. As the page says this is a letter from Father Lourenço Mexía to Father Pero da Fonseca written on October 8, 1581, saying "Frois writes" is strictly not true. Considering all of the rigorous claims about truth and factuality surrounding samurai made on this page in the past week it is marginally humorous that everyone has been overlooking a blatantly, demonstrably false statement in the article. X0n10ox (talk) 02:43, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Here's the relevant excerpt of the text of the letter that @X0n10ox links above (https://digitalis-dsp.uc.pt/bg5/UCBG-VT-18-9-17_18/UCBG-VT-18-9-17_18_item1/P680.html), found on the left-hand column of the right-hand page in that image, first full sentence, starts on line 5 of that column.

Leuou o padre hum cafre, o qual porq́ nunca foi viſto no Miaco, fez paſmar a todos, era a gente que o vinha ver q́ não tinha conto, & o meſmo Nobunanga paſmou de o ver nem ſe podia perſuadir que naturalmente era negro, mas que era artificio de tinta, & aſsi não ſe fartaua de o ver muitas vezes, & falar com elle, por que ſabia mediocremente a lingoa de Iapaõ, & tinha muita forças, & algũas manhas boas, de que elle muita goſtaua, agora o fauorece tanto que o mandou por toda a cidade com hum homem ſeu muita priuado pera que todos ſoubeſſem que elle o amaua: dizem que o fará Tòno.

Modernized spelling:

Levou o padre hum cafre, o qual porque nunca foi visto no Miaco, fez pasmar a todos, era a gente que o vinha ver que não tinha conto, & o mesmo Nobunanga pasmou de o ver nem se podia persuadir que naturalmente era negro, mas que era artificio de tinta, & assim não se fartava de o ver muitas vezes, & falar com elle, por que sabia mediocremente a lingoa de Japão, & tinha muita forças, & algumas manhas boas, de que elle muita gostava, agora o favorece tanto que o mandou por toda a cidade com hum homem seu muita privado pera que todos soubessem que elle o amava: dizem que o fará Tòno.

Google Translate, lightly tweaked for clarity:

The priest took a kaffir, who, because he had never been seen in Miaco [Kyoto], amazed everyone, it was the people who came to see him that had no story, & Nobunanga himself was amazed to see him and could not be persuaded that he was naturally black, but that he was an artifice of ink, & so he didn't get tired of seeing him often, & talking to him, because he knew the language of Japan mediocrely, & had a lot of strength, & some good tricks, which he liked a lot, now he favors him so much so that he sent him throughout the city with a very private man of his so that everyone would know that he loved him: they say [he] will make him Tono.

This isn't a letter written by Luís Fróis (who died in July 1579, too early for this incident anyway [apologies, had a dyslexia moment, date of death was July 1597]), but rather by Father Lourenço Mexia to Father Pero da Fonseca in October 1581, as we see in the header for this letter's text on the previous page (https://digitalis-dsp.uc.pt/bg5/UCBG-VT-18-9-17_18/UCBG-VT-18-9-17_18_item1/P679.html).

In summary: the Portuguese missionaries did not say that Yasuke was a tono, nor that Nobunaga would make Yasuke a tono, and instead Father Mexia is relating the town gossip, what people at large were saying might happen in future. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 22:48, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

Odoacer Rex’s changes

There is no proof that Yasuke was of African origin […]

There are four excerpts from primary sources in the "Documented life in Japan" section, in one of them he was described as a cafre by Luís Fróis.

Another quote (which is not in the article) is from François Solier's Histoire ecclésiastique des isles et royaumes du Japon, where he was described […] [a]s black as the Ethiopians of Guinea, but a native of Mozambique, and of those who are properly called Cafres.

I read the discussions, and like Ivanvector [4], whether or not he was African does not seem to be in dispute but maybe I missed something.

The edit that removed the term "likely of African origin" with an asumption was done recently (after a video game trailer), is suspect.
This is false, the term "likely" was introduced on 15 May at 19:08 (UTC), therefore after the release of the trailer (16:15 UTC). It was then removed by ARandomName123 on 19 May with the comment no need for likely, historians seem pretty certain. The lead before the release of the trailer was "Yasuke was a man of African origin".

About Special:Diff/1225764468, "traveller" implies that he travelled willingly to Japan which was not the case as he was a slave. As for "lusophone", the only primary sources we have state that he understood a few words in Japanese. We don't know his native language. He probably understood a few words of Portuguese, but we don't know if he was fluent. According to Mozambique#Languages, there are quite a few languages. Thibaut (talk) 18:36, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

To my mind, "of African origin" is a plain euphemism for Black, as in "we don't know where they were born, but they're Black so they must have African heritage", especially when the subject is a person who lived in the 16th century. But we need to go by what the sources actually say, not how we interpret them; that's been a bit of a problem here. If sources say "likely of African origin" then so do we. If they say "Black" then so do we. If they say "probably a Martian" then so do we. Having proof of where Yasuke was actually born is not at all relevant. Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 19:06, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

The sources seem to interchangeably call him "African" or "Mozambican". Ex. [5], which calls him by both, along with [6]. I've reverted the edit and added some inline citations for now. ARandomName123 (talk)^{Ping me!} 19:15, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

There do seem to be several academic sources that say (or at least state that the best historical estimate) of his country of origin was indeed Mozambique. Silverseren^C 19:08, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

Where should a documentary in production go?

The edit where I added the Yasuke documentary was reverted saying a documentary in planning doesn't go in "Popular culture". Where should it go? Nowhere man (talk) 23:13, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

About the situation during the time of Oda Nobunaga

Someone wrote a comment in English on ja:Talk:弥助, so I'll write a few comments here too. The era of Oda Nobunaga was at the end of the Sengoku period, and social customs were very different from those in the Edo period that followed. I'm a Japanese speaker, but I think there are some things that the editors of this article don't know enough about, so I'm commenting on them.

About Samurai

The status of samurai in this era was not fixed, unlike in the Edo period. For example, it is well known that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born as a farmer or merchant, and Ishida Mitsunari was a temple page. It was also common for retainers to change their lord for their own convenience, with Todo Takatora being a famous example.

About gays

Being gay was normal behavior for samurai in this era, and was not particularly problematic. For example, it is well known that Mori Ranmaru, a close aide to Oda Nobunaga, was also Nobunaga's lover, and although it is not often mentioned, Maeda Toshiie, who later became the lord of the Kanazawa domain, was also one of Nobunaga's lovers. A little later, it is also known that Tokugawa Iemitsu was bisexual.

EgiptiajHieroglifoj (talk) 18:03, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

WakandaScholar was active here too....he was disruptive and not constructive. --ErikWar19 (talk) 01:08, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

About the samurai status, the lack of a consistent definition is the issue we're dealing with at hand, I suggest checking up here with my post replying to _dk and to X0n's additional comment below that, and here, mainly the big post about Thomas Lockley's use of definition of samurai, which is the very big post with the bulleted source list. I am aware not all of them are academic sources per se (some are), but this kind of stuff has been well documented and accepted within historical academia (as evidenced by the few academic sources I had at hand atm). When I do get the time I will make an effort to gather more academic sources to provide a more cohesive case, but in summary for the purpose of this section here, it has been noted that specific individuals were not samurai, such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, until he was, but it was not when he was a sandalbearer, which I go into elaborate detail over.

As for the topic about homosexuality, from what I have read this was not cited and supported by evidence of any sort, and I heard this claim from Lockley as well. FWIW, I ask for evidence on that matter, since I didn't see any, and those that did claim it failed to cite their sources for it. There is absolutely no evidence for Yasuke's homosexual relationship with Nobunaga, it should be worth noting that none of the primary sources (WP:OR, but necessary for the topic at hand) state any intimate relationship of Yasuke with Nobunaga.

The fact of the matter is, these words matter a lot, and there was a great deal with those given samurai status. It was definitely easier in the Sengoku period, but it still went through the usual practices you see in feudal societies, that is, marriage, adoption, and/or imperial proclamation (through the Emperor) measured in accordance with the Ritsuryo court ranking system (which dictionary definitions among the Portuguese recognized the term had nobility tied to it, before the Edo period, I cite the dictionary in one of the posts above for you to see). The actual nuances of each rank do not really matter too much for the matter at hand here, just note where samurai are supposed to lie. All of this is detailed in my posts made up above that I linked here, and there are a few more posts that cover other fields I have if you have the time and energy to go through all of that, but I understand if you don't, just expect due diligence has already been done on this matter and that it isn't as simple as some may claim, and that these are the two main ones I made. If you have additional questions or concerns please do not be afraid to ask, in most cases I probably would have already covered it. Hexenakte (talk) 05:38, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

The statement about Ranmaru Mori being involved in a shudo relationship with Nobunaga is false,it is an Edo period invention.There is no contemporary source that describes those 2 as having a shudo relationship compared to people like Takeda Shingen. 80.106.161.157 (talk) 14:55, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

Priority of title justification

While the matter of Yasuke's samurai description was talked on this page extensively, i would like to form the discussion in a better order of necessity to understand better the source material available of Yasuke's time in Japan. In this sense we heard a lot of arguments, how Yasuke may or not may be justified to be a samurai with a lot of OR. The main problem with this argument would be the lack of interest to talk about contrary sources about Yasuke. For example the most used source linked on this article would be the huffingtonpost.jp article, that quoted various sources. The quotes and the text used 10 times 黒人奴隷 to describe Yasuke as a black slave. https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/yasuke_jp_609347f7e4b09cce6c26a9b2 and this is a common thing in many articles, already used on this page. The article in itself evades this term, while it seem to be quite a normal thing to state in these sources. Frois seem to use more the term "black slave" to describe Yasuke, than to state this name, probably given by Japanese people to him. Maybe it should be added in the article, that some sources describe Yasuke in his live on Japan mainly as a slave.

I don't know about a single source, that clearly writes about Yasuke getting released out of slavery at any point of his live. His treatment after the dead of Oda, even quoted on the article page, hints even a continuous view of Japanese, that Yasuke would be a slave in an incident, where retainers/samurai from Oda were treated different and were often killed. While this topic is not interested to force some major change onto the article, it should document the core problem of many arguments about Yasuke, that we can't even rule out the possibility, that Yasuke was even a free man in his entire known live in Japan, thereby making additional OR about his titles to mere speculations as long this first step into the room is ignored. We can't describe him as a samurai, while one of his main sources for his actions in Japan seems to call him over his whole existence as a 黒人奴隷.

Does anyone has the accurate terms of Frois? Are all our Japanese sources using an incorrect translation of Frois, to call Yasuke a black slave? This article is really confusing about this term, if you read the sources linked in the article.

It should be added, that in these times even in the UK the use of black servants with questionable status beyond servitude was known to exist, often connected to military services and often connected with liberty for these servants after their servitude and baptism. In some cases the slavery ended by default with the enlistment into the army, often the servitude simply expanded to household-duty as servants after the war. https://www.nationalcivilwarcentre.com/museum/expertextras/name-125968-en.php These servants were often acquired in Spain or Portugal and were often slaves from Morocco and they were rare in Europa on this age (60 in whole UK, if i read the source above correctly), but they were often used in colonies and trade. By using the same level of OR, i could easily declare Yasuke as a one of these slave-servant of Portuguese, who were given to Oda as a gift and returned to the Jesuits after his death. This is the core problem of OR, it makes a lot of other arguments similar plausible.

One of the biggest sources by the people, who probably brought him to Japan and to Oda and wrote about him more than the Japanese and knew probably more about his slave-status than most Japanese, wrote not about a change of this status and called him a black slave. Before we talk about his title X or title Y, maybe we should address this in our article.

To make it a bit easier to understand my core request, i underlined the core request. The rest is to point out the trickery in using OR and this is more about the contradiction between our sources calling him a black slave, while we only sideline it once in Possible depictions of Yasuke and had to include it in the sole quote, talking about him after his capture by Akechi. --ErikWar19 (talk) 02:03, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

A lot of the problems with the academic papers on Yasuke is the lack of in-text citations on any of their claims, as well as not establishing a consistent definition for the words they use, such as samurai. The primary source document on Yasuke's involvement in the Honno-ji incident states that Akechi referred to Yasuke as a black slave, but it is unknown on what he means by that, since it's the only document making this statement. While slavery was not outlawed yet in Japan at this time, Yasuke was given a stipend, so it is unlikely he was a slave in Oda's service (OR on my part, forgive me), but it's unknown in the case of the Jesuits. Lockley does make claims that the Jesuits were forbidden from owning slaves or practicing slavery in this time but, again, he neglects to cite pretty much anything (although I am not necessarily doubting this specific claim, it's just a problem with his research). It's a reason why the kosho (小性, page) title was removed from the article.

Overall, a lot of speculation is being made on what Yasuke is, however if there is one thing that can be confirmed is that he is an attendant, which the article already states he is (and it is supported by the fact he receives a stipend and had some role, whether it be combative or non-combative, and this is supported by some of the academic sources provided in the talk page as well), but we do not have an appropriate title for him since there is so little information on him, and none of the proposed academic sources have substantially proven or cited their claims. If there is a word we must use to describe Yasuke, it would be an attendant retainer. That's really the only verifiable thing we have, since we can't verify if he was an actual warrior either, he had no documented training or experience of fighting except in Honno-ji, which is the only battle he is confirmed to have participated in, and even then the details on what he did exactly are unknown. Hexenakte (talk) 16:44, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

I know about the stipend claim as well. i think it is from these 1-3 sentences about him in the Shincho Koki. Even this term is difficult, because 扶持 /fuckimai, is a stipend too - often paid in rice....for example for peasants, 俸禄/houroku is meant for a stipend for a retainer....and the big question would be, is it used for servants at court?

I think, that the Shincho Koki uses "houroku", but I'm unsure about the exclusivity of this term only for retainers at court. We would need to find a mention of the salary of non-samurai servants in the court, in the Shincho Koki, without the term houroku, to secure, that the term houroku is used only for retainers and not for servants from a different rank.

Lockley claims, that the Jesuits were forbidden from owning slaves or practising slavery could be misleading, as it could be about the forbidden practice of slavery for missionaries to create slaves in Japan. This was about Japanese people and it was justified by the Japanese lords to use some western terms, as these subjects were more property of these lords than by any other authority.

To call Jesuits somehow themself to be against slavery would simply be ignorant to the history, even documented and critical addressed by the Jesuit church today. https://www.nomos-shop.de/olms/titel/sklaverei-im-urteil-der-jesuiten-id-116949/ this publication highlights even the biggest involvement of this church in slavery in the area of 1550 und 1650, so exactly in this time-frame of Yasuke, the Jesuit church was heavily involved in slavery and owned a lot of slaves and was involved in the creation of slaves in a huge scale, this is explicit about Indian and African slaves and they supported heavily the transport of these people to the American continent. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3513906 This paper highlights this part of Jesuits too and i will add, that the Jesuits in Japan came from Goa, with daily slave auctions. i will even link to this picture of 1596, showing a Portuguese nobleman in Goa https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Hoz_habitu,_qui_e_Lusitanis_nobilitate_aut_dignitate_clariores_in_India_..._obequitant%22_(26344165136).jpg surrounded by slaves, including on the left 3 dark-skinned slaves as servants for him. Even the Wikipedia page of history of Goa describe "life in Goa in these times of 1550 to 1600 with: "Almost all manual labour was performed by slaves."

Jesuits were accomplices of slavery, explicit this branch of the Jesuit church. ErikWar19 (talk) 23:19, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

As a disclaimer all of this information I am about to post is to be assumed that is already cited in previous discussions in the talk page unless stated otherwise, in order to save time.

I think, that the Shincho Koki uses "houroku", but I'm unsure about the exclusivity of this term only for retainers at court. We would need to find a mention of the salary of non-samurai servants in the court, in the Shincho Koki, without the term houroku, to secure, that the term houroku is used only for retainers and not for servants from a different rank.

About that, although I did not see a "houroku" (@Eirikr could provide insight on that), Eirikr and I already went through the Shincho Koki and its mentions of stipends, and the way Gyuichi used 扶持 (fuchi, not fuckimai) was in most cases used for pay of several individuals (alleged samurai) or daimyos, with the exception of one, in which Nobunaga increased the stipends of all his attendants, and it specified 御伴 (attendant/followers) of both high and low rank, meaning everyone in Nobunaga's party. Here's the specific text in question:

御伴之上下皆落淚也御伴衆何れも々々被加御扶持難有仕合無申計樣体也如此御慈悲深き故に諸天の有御冥利而御家門長久にに御座候と感申也 (Source text, Emphasis mine)

All of Nobunaga’s companions, those of high as of low rank, also shed tears. Each and every one of his companions had his stipend increased, and it goes without saying that they felt fortunate and thankful. It is because Nobunaga was so compassionate, everyone felt, that the heavens shed their blessings upon him and that the fortunes of his house would long endure. (J.S.A Eliasonas and J.P Lamers Academic Translation)

Fuchi can mean different things in different contexts - it can mean rice, or it could mean actual money - but regardless of what the actual pay is, it is not determining of samurai status, as we had concluded earlier and also here as well. Another reason why is because Nobunaga is exceptionally known for his generosity and treating his ashigaru often as good as his own samurai, he is famous for this, and this was documented heavily in the Shincho Koki. And this is also during his peak where he is stupidly rich and quartered in Kyoto, so it would not be unreasonable to assume that his common footsoldiers or even attendants got paid with proper money (this is speculation and therefore OR on my part). I do also want to note that the stipend was also mentioned in Ietada's diary which the excerpt is also posted in the article, so he received a "stipend". But to be honest, it really makes no sense to assert that wages are a symbol of status, and I go into large detail of what constitutes a samurai with plenty of secondary sources replying to _dk's post and X0n's post below that here, and I also made one going into detail of Lockley's definition of samurai replying to X0n's posts here (if you don't want to read the entire thing, it's mainly the one at the very end with the long list of sources in bulleted points). I do plan on making a more comprehensive list of academic sources later (as those sources are not suggestions or proposals, they are demonstrating that I did not do OR), as I did not have enough time to delve and find them since I am very busy.

But to summarize, the determination of samurai status is often measured alongside the Ritsuryo court rank system, and big indicators of samurai status often includes the privilege to ride horses and a surname of noble standing (surnames such as Oda, Tokugawa, etc. since they are descendants of the Gen-pei-to-kitsu families), or just any connection to a noble family whether through marriage (Hideyoshi's marriage to his wife One gave him connections to the Minamoto lineage), adoption (Hideyoshi's adoption into the Konoe family gave him connections to the Fujiwara lineage, and by consequence, allow him to be granted the title of Kampaku), or even imperial proclamation (Hideyoshi gets the Toyotomi surname in an unprecedented manner by imperial proclamation from the Emperor, allowing him to set his clan alongside the Genpeitokitsu families). The actual nuances in between like, actually promoting in rank, I still need to research, but these statuses are measured through that system until the Edo period.

I feel like I got off on a tangent, but I felt it be necessary lest we repeat matters that were already thoroughly discussed, which I just wanna say I do agree and share your concerns, a lot of this stuff is just really muddied and very poorly researched especially in the English academic field. As for Lockley's claims about the slavery, I personally did doubt it but I didn't want to weigh in on it since I did not know enough about slavery in Japan during this time, it's not really my area of focus. To be quite honest it does not matter to me whether Yasuke was an actual slave or a servant, since I feel like there simply isn't enough information on him to truly know, and that speculation is the most to go off of. Maybe Akechi's words are to be taken literal, that he was a slave, but it just doesn't help the fact this person was hardly talked about at all, we can't really draw any conclusions without drifting into OR (because none of the academic sources on Yasuke seem interested in pursuing that perspective). All that is really in contention is his samurai status. I think in this case, the most fitting descriptor for Yasuke is attendant, since it's the only thing that is verifiable.

Also just to be clear, the term "retainer" is a catch-all term for vassals or those in service to a lord, it can refer to samurai warriors, non-samurai warriors, ashigaru, or even attendants alike. That's why it can be a problematic term to use since some people apparently think "retainer = samurai" when that isn't the case. It's also why it's problematic to conflate samurai and bushi together when applying it in historical contexts, and why such a distinction is necessary, as there were professional warriors who were not peasants but also not of samurai status (this is even more evident by the fact when the Tokugawa shogunate distinguished the two groups from Kishi (samurai) and Kachi (non-samurai), and they did this based off of pre-existing groups). Hexenakte (talk) 04:16, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

@ErikWar19, @Hexenakte, I'm not finding any instances of 俸禄 in the version of the Shinchō Kōki that ParallelPain referenced in his Reddit thread, and available here via the National Diet Library Collection: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1920322/1/1. There are 76 instances of 扶持 (fuchi), zero of 俸禄 (hōroku).

FWIW, the various references at the Kotobank page for 俸禄 (https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BF%B8%E7%A6%84-628777) suggest that hōroku was a synonym and/or definition for fuchi. Meanwhile, on the Kotobank page for 扶持 (https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%89%B6%E6%8C%81-124992), we see the word 俸禄 used to help define 扶持. We would need an extensive analysis of a specific time-bound corpus to tease out different nuances in usage. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 17:36, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

@Hexenakte@Eirikr in Romajidesu the term 俸禄 is called official payment/ retainer's stipend (https://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E4%BF%B8%E7%A6%84.html) 扶持 (fuchi, sry for my earlier error, Hexenakte) is here my Romajidesu with links to 扶持米 (fuchimai) stipend/ration by rice highlighted. (https://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-%E6%89%B6%E6%8C%81.html)

I would presume, that the best understanding of term in these times would be the portuguese work at these times. So the Vocabolario da lingoa de Japam, com adeclaracão em portugues, feito por alguns Padres e Irmaõs da Companhia de Jesus ...but i don't speak portuguese https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k852354j/f217.item here is the original on Gallica.

i have a hard time to find 俸禄 (hōroku, but Collins calls it fènglù https://www.collinsdictionary.com/zh/dictionary/chinese-english/%E4%BF%B8%E7%A6%84, so i'm confused) ErikWar19 (talk) 20:59, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

The fènglù rendering is the pinyin romanization of the modern Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. See also wikt:俸祿#Chinese (using the traditional Chinese glyph forms).

The entry in the Nippo Jisho, page here, right-hand column about halfway down:

Fuchi. Pága, ou ſalario. [original Portuguese]

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Fuchi. Pay, or salary. [English translation]

Due to Japanese pronunciation in the late 1500s, early 1600s, you will not find any entry hōroku — the "h" sounds in modern Japanese were pronounced as more like an "f" at the time.

The two Nippo Jisho entries for fôrocu are here, left-hand column, about a third of the way down.

Fôrocu. Tacara, tacara. Riquezas. [original Portuguese]

Fôrocu. Panela de barro.

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Hōroku. Takara, takara. Riches. [English translation + Hepburn romanization]

Hōroku. Clay pot.

Given the definitions, we can surmise that the first one is 俸禄, glossed with Japanese synonyms as meaning 宝 (takara, "treasure, riches") + 宝 (takara, "treasure, riches"), as perhaps the individual characters 俸 and 禄 can be (rather loosely) defined: "salary, wages, money received" + "blessings; salary, wages, remuneration". The second one is 焙烙, "a kind of Japanese earthenware pan or pot, used for dry-roasting grains, tea, and other things". Both are pronounced the same.

Given the Nippo Jisho definitions, we can also surmise any of the following:

• Hōroku was not used as a synonym for fuchi ("stipend") in the late 1500s / early 1600s.

  Monolingual Japanese references cite older texts using hōroku and fuchi both to mean some kind of "compensation / wages / salary / stipend", so these terms were probably at least partial synonyms at this time, for some (many? most?) speakers. But then, as we see too in English, some ideas may have many synonyms, of which a few are used only rarely; hōroku might be one such rarely-used term (at that time and place).

• Hōroku was not used as a synonym for fuchi ("stipend") in the local dialect(s) recorded in the Nippo Jisho, but might have been a synonym in other dialects.

  I have very little information about terminological variance among the Japanese dialects, and even less information about how that has changed through history.

• Hōroku was used as a synonym for fuchi ("stipend"), but João Rodrigues (or his deputies / assistants) were somehow confused about the meaning of the term.

  I haven't run across any other flat-out mistakes in the Nippo Jisho, so I am hesitant to decide on this option. That said, I have not done any extensive evaluation of the Nippo Jisho's definitions, and am speaking purely from occasional referencing of the work over many years while building out Japanese term etymologies at Wiktionary.

At any rate, the Nippo Jisho tells us at least that the Portuguese speakers of Japanese at that time probably did not view hōroku and fuchi as synonyms. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:15, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

About his slave status in Japan, here's what Jonathan López-Vera (who holds a PhD in History) says in his book Historia de los samuráis (2016), released in English as A History of the Samurai: Legendary Warriors of Japan:

The name given to this black slave was Yasuke (until recently the reason for this was unknown—investigations carried out in Japan not long ago claim his real name was Yasufe) and from then on he always accompanied Nobunaga as a kind of bodyguard. It is worth pointing out that henceforth he was no longer a slave, since he received a salary for being in the daimyō’s service and enjoyed the same comforts as other vassals.

Thibaut (talk) 05:44, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

While it is reasonable to assume that Yasuke would be no longer a "slave" in the most technical use of the word, since he was paid (it was unlikely he could leave service though, WP:OR on my part), there lacks citation/evidence on the claim of him being a bodyguard, or any specific role of Yasuke at least. I don't think it's a contention to say that Yasuke was a retainer, mostly everyone here can agree on that. I also shouldn't need to mention the questionable reliability on Lopez-Vera, as was mentioned earlier in the talk page, especially in regards to the claim he was a bodyguard here. Hexenakte (talk) 11:48, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm sorry but I don't think it's a good idea to use the word "retainer" in Wikipedia because there is no word of retainer 家来 or vassal 家臣 in any historical records.

扶持 Fuchi meant also rice, food, food expenses in Sengoku period. It was Edo era when 扶持 Fuchi became a term for salary.

After all Yasuke was given by Jesuit to Nobunaga for whom he served for 15 months. I believe as a Japanese that Yasuke was serving Nobunaga as a slave because he never had a free will to choose what he wanted in his life. He was never a free man.

A foreigner, who was taken to this strange land of rising sun by Jesuit as a slave and then given to an old man who sometimes sexually-plays with young boys and there were nobody to talk to in his language, .. would like to become a loyal retainer on his own will instead just going back to where he was brought up? I don't think so.

Foreigners are delusionary romanticizing Yasuke just because he served this big-shot samurai in Japan. Also no one would want to become a warrior to risk his life for a strange land for a strange old man who he has no attachment to and Yasuke had no patriotisms what so ever.

Yasuke served Nobunaga because he was a slave status with no free will. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 13:40, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

With all due respect, anyone under service of a lord would be considered a "retainer". It is not a special role or anything, but rather it is a catch-all term, and it can indeed make misconceptions on what Yasuke's role actually was. That's why I suggested he be referred to as an "attendant"/"attendant retainer", since he isn't known to fight besides Honno-ji, which attendants were also expected to fill in combat roles, but were not necessarily warriors themselves. While I personally wouldn't doubt that Yasuke would still be a slave under Nobunaga - since slavery was still practiced during this time - we cannot say for sure if he was a slave under Nobunaga, as we do not know what role he filled nor what status he had beyond that he was an "attendant" of some kind. Fuchi can indeed mean rice, but without further context, this doesn't give us much.

Also the comment about Nobunaga being "an old man who sometimes sexually-plays with young boys" is just blatantly wrong, Nobunaga never participated in shudo, it is an Edo myth and has no historical backing. Hexenakte (talk) 15:51, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

There is no historical record of Yasuke's position whatsoever. All we know is that Yasuke was given by Jesuit to Nobunaga without Yasuke's free will.

Retainer in translated into 家来 or 家臣 in Japanese and those words are not used in any historical records.

If you want to use a word of position then "servant" is more fitting than "retainer". Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 08:06, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

There is no records of Yasuke being a bodyguard.

It is all wishful speculation by black-samurai-believers.

There are many samurai with long swords who would die for Nobunaga.

So Yasuke is not needed and he has no motivation to die for Nobunaga the odd old man in a strange foreign land where Yasuke was just brought as a slave by Jesuit. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 13:03, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

RFC: How should we describe Yasuke?

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

How should we describe the subject of this article?

• Option 1: As a samurai, consistently
• Option 2: As a samurai, with a note that some sources do not call him a samurai
• Option 3: As a retainer, with a note that some sources call him a samurai
• Option 4: As a retainer, consistently

Loki (talk) 03:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Survey

• Option 1 The sourcing here seems to be pretty clear that "Yasuke was a samurai" is the majority view among scholars. We have lots of reliable sources that say that he was a samurai, including:

• This paper by an academic historian.
• The book by Lockley mentioned several times above.
• Several academic reviews of Lockley's book.
• The book by Lopez-Vera linked in a previous comment.
• The Smithonian magazine.
• Time.
• The BBC.
• Britannica.

Conversely, we have not a single reliable source that says explicitly he was not a samurai, or that even suggests that he might not have been. Not one. All we have is a bunch of WP:OR readings of primary sources and sources that don't say anything on the subject. Loki (talk) 03:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

• Option 1 It's really the only option that makes sense with the sourcing we have. They all refer to him as a samurai and several go into explicit detail of how that class ranking occurred for him in the court of Nobunaga, such as with the available academic sources. Here's some example excerpts I included in a section earlier on this page.

"It is worth pointing out that henceforth he was no longer a slave, since he received a salary for being in the daimyō’s service and enjoyed the same comforts as other vassals. He was granted the rank of samurai and occasionally even shared a table with Nobunaga himself, a privilege few of his trusted vassals were afforded."

Lopez-Vera, Jonathan (2020-06-02). A History of the Samurai. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4629-2134-8.

"...Yasuke's height and strength (which "surpassed that of ten men"), Nobunaga gave him a sword signifying bushi status. Yasuke served as Nobunaga's retainer and conversation partner for the last year of the warlord's life, defending Azuchi castle from the traitorous Akechi forces in 1582, where Nobunaga committed ritual suicide (seppuki). Although there are no known portraits of the African samurai, there are some pictorial depictions of dark-skinned men (in one of which he is sumo wrestling) from the early Edo period that historians speculate could be Yasuke."

Atkins, E. Taylor (2017-10-19), A History of Popular Culture in Japan: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-4742-5857-9

...Yasuke already possessed skills as a warrior, as he is believed to have become a samurai after only one year, a remarkably short period of time. Samurai usually trained from boyhood. Nobunaga granted Yasuke the role of sword bearer in the royal guard, for he felt Yasuke had the "might as that of ten men." This was an era in which Japan was still suffering the aftershocks of a civil war in which hundreds of petty warlords had vied for control of the country."

On a separate page,

"Nobunaga had believed that Yasuke must either be a guardian demon or a god; he was black as only temple statues were black. But touching Yasuke, hearing him speak his rich, inimitable foreigner's Japanese, Nobunaga realized he was only a man. He threw a feast in Yasuke's honour, made him gifts of money, and requested that they train him to become a samurai - an honor never before bestowed upon any foreigner. It would elevate him into Japan's warrior class, the top echelon of society. Yasuke accepted and was granted a house, a stipend, and even, in a turn that may have felt uncomfortable to him, his own manservant. That Yasuke had arrived fluent in Japanese was a great asset."

Edugyan, Esi (2021). Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling. House of Anansi Press. ISBN 978-1-4870-0988-5.

The amount of detail and consistency in the academic sources on the subject, while still having separate presentations of events that give their own details quite clearly shows the history involved. Particularly in why and how Yasuke was given such an honor and also why Nobunaga was so enamored with having Yasuke be a part of his court and kept him close in his service even to the end of Nobunaga's life itself. Silverseren^C 03:24, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Discussion

• There was a previous "RFC" that was not declared with the RFC template above. (Note that because of this, I at least would not object to closing this early if discussion peters out quickly.) Pinging participants in that discussion to this one: Loki (talk) 03:17, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

RomeshKubajali, Eirikr, Yvan_Part, X0n10ox, DemianStratford, Hawkatana, Ivanvector, Sock, Hemiauchenia, Hopefull Innformer, Hexenakte, Silverseren, natemup, Aquillion, Ezio's Assassin, Fleari, 2A02:A457:533:0:8A55:EAA7:71D6:C0FB, ErikWar19, Green Caffeine, Gitz6666 Loki (talk) 03:22, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Sorry Fieari for misspelling your name. Loki (talk) 03:23, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Why not just add a section about the samourai status

that would explain conflictual depictions / sources Freavene (talk) 00:01, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

We have right now bigger problems, some of the main sources for his samurai status is often translated incorrectly (s. section about "Translation of the extract from the Shincho Koki) about regular things, like his age. So the source material is difficult to secure.

I made a point in my section, that he could be a slave and there is a possibility, that his stipend wouldn't be an actual retainer stipend or just a regular salary, but this is hard to certify, so i would suggest to wait for the books Thibaut ordered to give us a bit more inside into the actual sources. thx @Thibaut120094 btw

A lot of these translation mistakes happen, in all respect and without calling myself prone to the same mistake, by google translate and the tendency of this translator to mistranslate some terms, like black slave to black people, if you just copy paste the article into the box and expect it to be correct.

(this happen in my case at least, i switched the language to my non-english language and than noticed the differences and had to translate every single word of certain quoted to realize, that the Portuguese sources mainly speak about a slave, that is presumed to be Yasuke in these articles)

Same with claims, that he owned katanas or the Sumo-depiction, that presume the identity of both people to fit it into this article...We have depictions of servants and they are presumed to be slaves with a dark skin colour in Japan in this time-frame and we see Portuguese Jesuits in the same screen. Maybe one of these servant-slaves was Yasuke.

The Portuguese Jesuits, while partly critical views existed in Europa and America, where deeply supportive and connected to the slave trade, explicit the Indian branch, that formed the Japanese Jesuit section, daily slave auctions and every nobleman has slaves in Goa, level of embrassed slavery culture. And these Jesuits introduced these black people into Japan and gifted one of these people to Oda, who served him...( Kano Naizen's "Arrival of the Southern Barbarians Screen" ~ 1600, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Nanban-Screens-by-Kano-Naizen-c1600.png/1920px-Nanban-Screens-by-Kano-Naizen-c1600.png)

In other words. The matter about his slave to samurai status is not conflictual, all of this is Original research...or a bit direct, presumptions without good sources. And the reliable sources are more and more leaning to the slave status in my personal view btw. Some media for entirely different artistic and not historic reasons just wants to depict him different. --ErikWar19 (talk) 23:49, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

No one's written about this and comparing sources would be WP:SYNTH. This is ultimately an obscure historical figure few wrote about at the time, and a lot of sources not familiar with Japan seem to conflate retainer with Samurai to begin with. We have sources he was a retainer, so just run with it. Harizotoh9 (talk) 02:24, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

even the claim, that he would be a retainer is not enterely secured and a matter of discussion on this talk page.

It should be highlighted, that the biggest source of his liv ein Japan, the Portuguese sources, who brought him to Japan in the first place, called him a slave in more than one paragraph.

Easily source-able by simply searching for the term "black slave" in our already used and linked japanese articles.

please dont simply copy-paste the articles into google translate, they will translate it wrong into english. ErikWar19 (talk) 01:30, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

• There is a currently open RFC on this subject that is likely to close in a week or so; given that it seems to be leaning overwhelmingly towards presenting him as a samurai as the primary (and possibly only, uncontested) view, it's likely the article will have to be substantially rewritten afterwards. So there's little point in discussing what to do with the current version - based on the way the RFC is leaning, unless the closer reads something truly startling into it, the dispute we'll be looking at after it closes is "given that the RFC concluded that his status as a samurai is the majority and primary view, should we mention that there is a minority that is skeptical of that, and if so, based on what sources? Or should we just state that he was a samurai as uncontested fact?" If people want to influence how that is worded (or the still-open RFC) the thing to do would be to focus on digging up sources discussing the view of him as a samurai. --Aquillion (talk) 19:03, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

• I'm still amused that there has yet to be a single reliable source presented arguing that he wasn't a samurai, despite continual claims by some on this talk page that such a view is the main academic one. Instead, we're just seeing a ton of editor OR in a bunch of sections arguing for using primary sources in a certain way based on only an editor's translation of what they mean. Silverseren^C 19:23, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

  This has been addressed consistently throughout the talk page and yet this point is still being repeated with no thought towards what the actual circumstances are, especially with the use of questionable secondary sources which have been pointed out to have no citations for their claims (not even some, but evidently all of them), the concerns of peer reviews of these sources, and the lack of a consistent definition standard of what a samurai is during this time period. Please stop repeating this flawed claim and actually address these issues, you have seen these arguments, do not pretend you haven't. Hexenakte (talk) 01:01, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

• And I've told you repeatedly that actual academics whose job is to study Japanese history and culture are way more relevant and important than your opinion on what they said. You are the one claiming they don't have sources, without evidence. You are the one making up reliability claims about their works without evidence. You, an WP:SPA account made a month ago pretty much exclusively to edit this article pushing a claim about the subject that is the same nonsense that started being pushed at that time by Gamergaters throwing a tantrum about the new Assassin's Creed game having a black person in it. Apologies if I don't consider your original research about Yasuke worth anything. Silverseren^C 01:16, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  Again, you did not read what I said. I have pointed out that even in their own peer reviews, such as Lockley's, have been pointed out of the lack of citation on their claims and even to be considered non-academic as a result of it.[8] I've pointed out that the other academic sources mentioned also use Lockley or also have the same problems of lacking citations for their claims. I have also pointed out that none of them share the same definition on what a samurai is. You are not at all considering any of these arguments which are not at all considered OR, these are not MY claims. They are what these academic sources have written and considering the merits of what they have written. If they do not provide citations on the claims, they cannot be proven, and even their peers agree. This is a very complicated subject considering how contextual the Japanese language is. So please, practice due diligence as others and I have to gather only reliable sources on the matter, since these sources are not reliable, and stop trying to dismiss it as OR.

  Also, do not claim I am a WP:SPA, this account was made long before the topic of Yasuke even came up, and I do intend on using it for other purposes as well, you can check my profile showing that I am open to collaboration on many other historical topics other than the Sengoku period. Hexenakte (talk) 01:49, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  Are you drawing parallels between Hexenakte and racist gamergaters to implicitly discredit the discussions on this Talk page? That, plus the cheeky and condescending tone of your posts, throws out any presumption of good faith. What I see on this Talk page is a proof that certain secondary sources, which claim Yasuke was a samurai, are not reliable sources. A secondary source which makes things up about a primary source is not a reliable secondary source. An editor can't use it. That's Wikipedia 101. The sources claiming Yasuke was a samurai are not verifiable, and they are not reliable sources. Why should they be considered reliable? A book written by a well-known individual, but which lacks sources to back it's claims up, is hardly reliable, much less "academic."

  This is not original research. This is checking the sources which is *typical* in *any* Wikipedia article. Hexenakte has given sources for his/her/their claims, multiple times, and only for people to dismiss those claims "original research."

  The default condition for Yasuke is: him not being a samurai. Yasuke cannot be considered a samurai simply because many modern depictions or folk-tale style stories show him as a samurai, or because unreliable secondary sources claim his as such. It's legend. It's fine that it's legend. But it's not a verifiable claim. And I get the feeling that many people out here (not necessarily you) are fetishizing the status of being a samurai, as if being a retainer makes Yasuke less "cool." Incredibly problematic. Green Caffeine (talk) 01:59, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  It's not just popular culture that says he's a samurai. I posted a list of reliable sources in the RFC and what I posted isn't even complete, as far as I can tell. Googling just now I found this additional source by another historian which also says that Yasuke was a samurai.

  You may not like Lockley but he's clearly an expert in the subject area, so if he says Yasuke was a samurai that pretty clearly constitutes a reliable source for Wikipedia's purposes. (Wikipedia doesn't get into the business of trying to check a source's sources, so it doesn't matter whether he cites his own sources. He could say it's just his professional opinion and be reliable on the topic.) And academic reviews of his book agree that Yasuke was a samurai, and so does the Lopez-Vera source, and so does the Smithsonian Magazine source, etc etc.

  Would this be enough in the face of a clear academic consensus that Yasuke wasn't a samurai? No, definitely not. But we don't have that. Instead we have some sources that call him things other than "samurai", and zero academic or even reasonably reliable sources that say explicitly he wasn't a samurai. Since all the reliable sources that give an opinion say he was a samurai, we have to say that too. Loki (talk) 02:23, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  It is, in fact, popular history saying he is samurai. The review I just posted describes Lockley's findings as "popular history" and specifically states that it is "not detailed enough for the academic [field]". Here is the relevant quotes:

  The book is clearly intended as popular history, and, while it may be unfair to judge a book by what it is not, the scarcity of primary sources on Yasuke is compounded by the lack of scholarly citations or other means to document the narrative.

  ...

  While Yasuke is not a fictional character, his contributions to the outcome of events, like the primary sources about him, are slim at best. He does, however, offer the reader a non-Japanese lens on Japan. Although this lens may not be detailed enough for the academic, African Samurai's lively writing style does offer the reader of popular history and historical fiction a glimpse of samurai values from late sixteenth-century Japan. (Emphasis mine)

  This is not me saying this, this is a peer who has reviewed Lockley's work and deemed it unacceptable in an academic format, and if you want additional quotes by Purdy, they are also listed in the talk page as well, he goes into more detail about the lack of citations and the invention of creative embellishments by Lockley.

  As for the other sources, such as Lopez-Vera, they are often in the similar boat as Lockley, that is, the lack of citations to make up for their claims, which can be seen in Talk:Yasuke#On_the_subject_of_academic_sources (also check Talk:Yasuke#Samurai_status on a cohesive definition of what is considered as a samurai backed with a plethora of secondary sources (a more comprehensive list will be made in the future) and Talk:Yasuke#Reaction_of_Thomas_Lockley on Lockley's definition of samurai), which are all the current listed academic sources in support of Yasuke being a samurai, which is 5 of them. All of them follow the same problems as Lockley, they fail to cite their sources. You can look more about it there, because we have discussed this extensively. Remember, the content determines reliability just as much as the researcher's background WP:SOURCE.

  Those who are newer or not looking at this talk page much should keep in mind, all of these things have already been considered, it would be tiring having to repeat this over and over in multiple sections so please look before posting about it. I also suggest that a different method be taken instead of the current RfC due to the lack of participation in those who added to the RfC as well as the complexity of the circumstances we have at hand. Hexenakte (talk) 02:57, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  Doesn't matter what the sources do about their sources. A source can cite zero sources and still be reliable (and in fact the vast majority of sources on Wikipedia are like this: it's rare for a newspaper to cite its sources, for instance). We are simply not at all in the business of caring how a reliable source came to its own opinion, and trying to poke in there is WP:OR.

  Lockley's professional opinion as a historian whose area of expertise is Japanese history is reliable on this matter even if his book isn't reliable for specific factual details. Lopez-Vera's professional opinion is similarly reliable, and his book is reliable for specific factual details. The paper I just linked is also clearly a reliable academic source. Many of the academic reviews of Lockley's book call Yasuke a samurai, and those are reliable sources. The Smithsonian Magazine is a reliable source, and it calls Yasuke a samurai. Etc etc.

  You can't say "all of these things have already been considered" when you've clearly arrived at a WP:LOCALCONSENSUS based on the opinion of a bunch of very new WP:SPAs that totally misreads Wikipedia sourcing policy. Loki (talk) 03:37, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  Doesn't matter what the sources do about their sources. A source can cite zero sources and still be reliable (and in fact the vast majority of sources on Wikipedia are like this: it's rare for a newspaper to cite its sources, for instance). We are simply not at all in the business of caring how a reliable source came to its own opinion, and trying to poke in there is WP:OR.

  This is not per Wikipedia policy where the content itself can affect reliability (see WP:SOURCE) and the scrutiny and fact checking given to said sources makes it more likely to be reliable, and that editors must use judgement on what sources should be used or deemed inappropriate (see WP:SOURCEDEF). In fact it states that "no source is 'always reliable'". The idea that editors cannot practice due diligence on the reliability of secondary sources is not only wrong, but calls into the question of whether you are even acting in good faith about the topic at hand. Who wants to enforce ideas they cannot verify? Because that's essentially what you're arguing for, see Wikipedia:Verifiability. Still engaging with accusations of OR also hurts your case when you have not practiced the same due diligence nor assumed good faith in the others who have.

  Lockley's professional opinion as a historian whose area of expertise is Japanese history is reliable on this matter even if his book isn't reliable for specific factual details. Lopez-Vera's professional opinion is similarly reliable, and his book is reliable for specific factual details. The paper I just linked is also clearly a reliable academic source. Many of the academic reviews of Lockley's book call Yasuke a samurai, and those are reliable sources. The Smithsonian Magazine is a reliable source, and it calls Yasuke a samurai. Etc etc.

  It can absolutely be thrown out if his claims are not reliable, his background is not the only thing that determines reliability, again see WP:SOURCE and WP:SOURCEDEF. Lopez-Vera, as I stated, neglected to cite his claims on Yasuke, just the same as Lockley. If you want to know specifically what he wrote, he put Yasuke in a white box in one page of his academic book, which contained zero inline citations, and that was it. Please show the academic reviews that claim Lockley's claims were "reliable", because I gave you a review from professor RW Purdy who noted the extreme lack of inline citations for his claims, which you can read in full in this talk page, see Talk:Yasuke#Reaction_of_Thomas_Lockley. Again, you glossed over this review despite how integral it is to determining the reliability of an academic book. Why do peer reviews matter then, if you're not even going to read them?

  You can't say "all of these things have already been considered" when you've clearly arrived at a WP:LOCALCONSENSUS based on the opinion of a bunch of very new WP:SPAs that totally misreads Wikipedia sourcing policy.

  These findings were not challenged further despite the fact they are up for everyone to see, and we have pointed to that section multiple times. Also to say it was the "opinion of a bunch of very new WP:SPAs" while also considering the fact that a good portion of those participating in the RfC above have not participated further after it ending, and often not at the consideration of these findings. Exactly like how you are doing, they are not involved in checking to see the reliability of these sources, but by all means I would prefer it if they did. Not to mention, the people involved in that section are not SPAs at all, editors such as @Silver seren, @Eirikr, @Theozilla, and myself have all been extensively involved in this talk page. None of them are SPAs, and 2 of them disagree with me.

  That being said, I do not know why you didn't reply in those sections if you think these findings were wrong, because that should've been the first place to go if you want to address the contention of these sources. No, I am not going to repeat the same information I have been writing out on this talk page over and over spread across multiple sections, that is a waste of time and resources. You are going to go to those sections where they have already been addressed if you want to challenge it. Do not expect others here to have the time to cite each and every time they bring up information when that information has already been addressed and not challenged further in the previous sections, because everyone here has lives they have to attend to. I will always point you to those sections for you to look at to demonstrate that none of this is OR, so please, respect my time and others as well and look at them. Hexenakte (talk) 04:57, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  "The paper I just linked is also clearly a reliable academic source."

  I believe you mean this paper?

  • https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Boga-Manatsha/publication/369693451_Historicising_Japan-Africa_relations/links/642843ca315dfb4ccec54d88/Historicising-Japan-Africa-relations.pdf

  We already discussed that paper and determined it to be deeply problematic, as described above in the #Samurai status section. Manatsha claims:

  He [Yasuke] was later promoted to a samurai (warrior), and stationed at Nobunaga’s Azuchi Castle, where he distinguished himself by gallantly fighting to defend his new master (Tsujiuchi, 1998; Russell, 2007; Weiner, 2009).

  However, upon evaluating Manatsha's sources, none of them — not Tsujiuchi, not Russell, not Weiner — make any statement about Yasuke becoming a samurai.

  Looking at Manatsha's paper again just now, I see further indications that this is not a scholarly work of rigorous academic value.

  Page 3, second paragraph (emphasis mine):

  One Sinologist claims that “In 1976 a great sensation was produced at the court of Tang Emperor by the arrival of an Arab envoy with a ‘negro slave’ in his suite” (quoted in Russell, 2007:24).

  As I understood it, the last Tang emperor died in 907. If we were to be extremely generous, we might point out that "1976" and "907" share two of the same digits.

  Further along in that same paragraph:

  The Japanese word ‘kurombo’ refers to dark-skinned/black people. It was derived from the Chinese word ‘kunlun’, which originally referred to the dark-skinned people, mainly from South Asia, who were slaves during the Qin and Tang dynasties (Tsujiuchi, 1998; Wyatt, 2010; Welsh, 2012).

  The Japanese word 黒坊 is pronounced as kuronbō in the modern language, and was pronounced without the medial nasal as kurobō in the 1500s and early 1600s. This is not derived from Chinese kunlun (for which the only Chinese word I'm aware of is 崑崙 Kūnlún, the name of the Kunlun Mountains). The Japanese term kurobō or kuronbō is derived from 黒 (kuro, "black", native Japonic term) + 坊 (bō, "monk's quarters; monk; acolyte; boy", ultimately deriving from the Middle Chinese term for "workshop").

  Boga Thura Manatsha's paper, "Historicising Japan-Africa relations", is not a reliable academic source. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 09:53, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

  Just an FYI, the source Manatsha quotes writes 976, the 1 is a typographical error. As for the Tang Court, see Southern Tang. The source of "Kunlun" and "Kurombo" is also Russel, who cites Midori Fujita's widely cited Nihonshi niokeru 'Kurobo' no Tojo. I don't think a source can or should be declared unreliable over a single typo and a quote from other academic sources just because your understanding of the language disagrees with the sources the author used. 172.90.69.231 (talk) 21:27, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

  • A typo of the magnitude of changing 976 to 1976 when talking about the Tang Dynasty is inexcusable. This indicates that the paper was not edited by anyone even passingly familiar with Chinese history.

  This kind of typo calls into question the quality of the paper as a whole. If such an obvious and egregious error appears here, where else has the author made uncorrected mistakes?

  • The Southern Tang is not the Tang. Claiming that an incident in 976 happened "at the court of the Tang Emperor" is problematic wording. Moreover, the Southern Tang fell in 975, as described at Song conquest of Southern Tang. Russell's 2007 work, "Excluded Presence: Shoguns, Minstrels, Bodyguards, and Japan's Encounters with the Black Other", is marked in Manatsha's paper as the source for this mention of the Tang court. Russell is available here at Academia.edu:

  • https://www.academia.edu/3834263/Excluded_Presence_Shoguns_Minstrels_Bodyguards_and_Japans_Encounters_with_the_Black_Other

  Russell himself dates the Tang Dynasty as ending in 907, and the mention of 976 is in a quote that Russell includes from a different work, "(Coupland, quoted in Filesi 1962, 21)". Filesi 1962 is listed in Russell's bibliography as China and Africa in the Middle Ages, which I cannot currently track down (though I will look more later).

  • Manatsha does not cite Russell, but rather "(Tsujiuchi, 1998; Wyatt, 2010; Welsh, 2012)" for the mention of kuronbo and kunlun.

  • Tsujiuchi via JStor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43294431?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

  Tsujiuchi makes no mention of kurombo / kuronbo / kurobo anywhere in the body of the text, and only mentions kurobo in the bibliography as part of a title.

  No mention anywhere of kunlun.

  • Wyatt 2009 appears to be The Blacks of Pre-modern China by Don Wyatt. That appears to be this text in Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=colwNdOiiCQC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

  I have not been able to evaluate this text yet in any detail; I see that it includes many instances of the word kunlun, but zero instances of kurombo / kuronbo / kurobo.

  • Welsh 2012 appears to be "Cultural trends and cross-cultural interest: The “southern barbarian screens” and early modern Japan" in the publication Japan Studies Association Journal, volume 10, pages 138-162. Available here: https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=503e8a8b-1a97-4244-87f5-ddd163b60d52%40redis

  No mention anywhere of kunlun.

  One mention of kurombo, as part of the putative compound kurombo-jin. This is lexically strange, as the 坊 (-bō) suffix in Japanese already includes a sense of "person", so the addition of the 人 (jin) on the end is redundant; at any rate, there are exceedingly few instances of 黒坊人 (kuronbō-jin) anywhere in Google hits (none on regular Google [9], three on Google Books [10], of which one is definitely a scanno with intervening punctuation, and the other two might be, as Google's "snippet view" is unreliable and difficult to evaluate.

  In addition, my description above about the derivation of Japanese kurobō is by no means just "[my] understanding of the language". Please, by all means, have a look at the multiple Japanese dictionary entries available on the corresponding pages for this term at Kotobank [11], [12] and Weblio [13], [14]. Then use those to view the corresponding pages for 黒 (kuro, "black") and 坊 (bō, "boy"). See also the English Wiktionary entry at wikt:黒坊, or the Japanese Wiktionary entry at wikt:ja:黒ん坊. This Japanese term is in no way derived from any Chinese term kunlun.

  None of the three cited texts makes any claim that Japanese kurombo / kuronbo / kurobo is from Chinese kunlun; none makes any claim about the etymology of the Japanese term at all. So Manatsha here seems to be fabricating.

  Ultimately, just from what I've evaluated above in this thread (based in part on @Tisthefirstletter's post earlier in #Status above), Manatsha has fabricated an erroneous etymology for kurombo, and fabricated that "[h]e [Yasuke] was later promoted to a samurai (warrior)". In both fabrications, Manatsha cites sources that do not back up his claims.

  Manatsha's paper is not a reliable academic source. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 18:42, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

  Yeah, looking at it again more closely Manatsha miscites and misattributes a bunch of things. I'm tempted to write to the editorial board of that journal because these are gross errors. The section in Russell says "konrondo" meant "black slaves" and that "konrondo" was derived from "kunlun-nu" on page 41. Which is surprising, since according to his credentials Boga Manatsha has a PhD from Hiroshima University. My bad. 172.90.69.231 (talk) 21:37, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

  Appreciate the honesty, and yea, unfortunately this seems to be a recurring theme surrounding Japanese history in the English field in general, but more glaringly in the case of Yasuke. Hopefully more people can realize just how muddy the research here is. Hexenakte (talk) 21:42, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

  The actual source for the "Tang Court" claim can be traced back to here which notably doesn't mention Tang at all in the 976 Statement. Russell cites Coupland, quoted in another book, and the Coupland cites the above book as the source. Considering as we know when all of the various Tang Dynasties came to an end, it is definitely a gross oversight to keep perpetuating Coupland's error. 172.90.69.231 (talk) 22:10, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

  Thank you for tracking those sources down.

  It appears that Coupland made two errors that have been propagated by other authors.

  • Coupland erroneously describes the 976 encounter in China as occurring in the Tang court:

  In 976 a great sensation was produced at the court of the Tang emperor by the arrival of an Arab envoy with a ‘negro slave’ in his suite; [...]

  This is sourced to E. Bretschneider's 1871 book On the Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies, etc. (which you kindly also found and linked above).

  Meanwhile, what Bretschneider actually wrote on page 13:

  In 976 an Envoy from Ta shi brought a negro slave from 崑崙 K'un lun⁶ to China who created much sensation at court.

  ⁶[long explanation of the identity of K'un lun, as both the w:Kunlun Mountains on the border between China and Tibet, and as an alternative name for the island of Pulo Condore near Cambodia — which is now Vietnamese territory, and called by its Vietnamese name of w:Côn Đảo — which is spelled in Chinese as 昆仑, a.k.a. K'un lun. Bretschneider explains that the "Kunlun slaves" were very likely dark-complected people living in that area: what we now call Southeast Asia, the Malay peninsula, the Indonesia islands, and the Philippines.]

  • Coupland then also agrees with William Ingrams' 1967 book Zanzibar (here at Google Books, only limited preview available) in deciding that Bretschneider's K'un lun was "in East African waters rather than in Malaya". Without reading Ingrams, I cannot directly assess his reasoning, but given the existence of 昆仑 in the waters off Vietnam, I am inclined to think that Ingrams and Coupland were both wrong on this point.

  Very interesting how mistakes can echo down through the years. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 18:07, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

  May I remind that Lockley's book is highly unreliable?

  I recommend watching this video from a historian who mentions some of issues with Lockley's book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14BnxtZLBNc

  Lockley's African Samurai does not have in-text citations, making it impossible to verify individual claims. In addition, both the historian in the video above and some editors here on Wikipedia have proven that Lockley actually misquotes some of the primary sources he listed in the book.

  Other secondary sources have similar issues - direct statements without verifiable citations or using unreliable secondary sources to back up their claims. None of the sources which claim Yasuke was a samurai try to argue/debate with the assertion using specific evidence. They just state it as a fact. This would be somewhat acceptable for a historical figure where we have overwhelming evidence in support of the consensus, but that is not the case for Yasuke. Here we have a consensus with very shaky support in historical sources. 81.223.103.71 (talk) 07:34, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

  Don Roley isn't a historian. He has no academic background or non-self published works. Don Roley is, in fact, a martial arts instructor and nothing more. He is quite literally the definition of an unreliable source. 172.90.69.231 (talk) 21:31, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

  Youtube is not a reliable source, and he isn't even a historian, You all keep arguing put can't prove what you are saying Freavene (talk) 22:36, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

  He is also a translator of a number of books from Japanese and has a solid understanding of the historical period being discussed. I don't see how the lack of a formal academic background makes the points he made about the verifiability and reliability of Lockley's book less valid.

  I am trying to believe your arguments are in good faith, but find it challenging that you would accept unverifiable secondary sources based solely on the merit that the author was a historian. 81.223.103.71 (talk) 07:21, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

  It's mostly just Wikipedia policy. See Wikipedia:Identifying_and_using_self-published_works#Using self-published sources. Don Roley isn't an established expert by Wikipedia criteria. Translating and self-publishing a book by Seiko Fujita doesn't establish his credibility because there is nobody really overseeing the process nor is anyone in the process verifying that his translations are completely accurate or faithful. Anyone can self-publish books and make a YouTube video making claims, it doesn't make them reliable. 172.90.69.231 (talk) 21:17, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

  Thank you for the added references on Wikipedia policies and the clarifications. Yes, I stand corrected that Don Roley unfortunately cannot be used as a source beyond his personal observations. My apologies! 81.223.103.71 (talk) 08:38, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

  I am Japanese and there are many of us who are really mad at Lockely, who is just an associate professor for English/Culture in Japan, is the source of all these delusional nonsense of Yasuke. Yasuke's historical records can be read under two minutes and I read them in Japanese. Lockley fabricated lots of things with his imaginations without any historical backing and circumstances. In our ancient culture, the clan name/family name/sur name is the important marker to recognize who is the ruler class or important persons. So Yasuke not getting any clan name/surname from Nobunaga means that Nobunaga never considered Yasuke as bushi let alone samurai (high rank bushi). There were many warriors other than bushi in Sengoku period like 僧兵 monk soldiers. But we don't call 僧兵 bushi let alone samurai. We never called any warriors samurai. Samurai was a noble bushi or high rank bushi. There were 農兵 peasant soldiers too below 足軽 Ashigaru. 農兵 and 足軽 were all called as 雑兵 Zohyo by samurai during Sengoku period. In 信長公記 Shincho Koki, 雑兵(Zohyo) and Samurai were clearly distinguished. Yasuke never fought in battle fields as Nobunaga never went to any battle after he got Yasuke from Jesuit. Honnoji incident is not really a battle nor war, it was just an assassination or sneak attack. We don't call just anyone who just got caught in an incident a samurai.

  Many Japanese feel that foreigners are trying to falsifying our history and culture and we are really angry. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 10:22, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

  While Roley may not meet the Wikipedia criteria for an established expert, Roger Purdy does, as a university professor and published historian. His CV is available here. Purdy also pointed out problems with Lockley, as discussed and mentioned earlier on this page in numerous earlier sections, and even above in this very #Why not just add a section about the samourai status section. His review of Lockley is available via Academia.edu, at https://www.academia.edu/116182001/African_Samurai_The_True_Story_of_Yasuke_A_Legendary_Black_Warrior_in_Feudal_Japan. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 19:21, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

insisting on google translate translation into article

people stillt try to insert 黒人は信長様から家臣として召し抱えられて俸禄を得た。名前は弥助とされた。短刀と屋敷なども与えられた。時折、信長様の道具を運ばされた」 this quote into the article, while it is "translated" 短刀 with google translate means short sword, while the term is clearly more in use with the term dagger or knife. even our own wikionary calles it a "short dagger" so even the term dagger is generous. It is not a wakizashi.

Please stop trying to spam down the article with the single source of 1 sentence, that he got a salary 3-4 times. While not quoting once one of the many other quotes, who call him simply a slave. ErikWar19 (talk) 15:03, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

You have now several times removed referenced text, specifically the sentence "As a retainer, he was granted a stipend, a house, and a short sword.".

In your edit comments, you have claimed that "than i will just remove the google translate, that isnt even able to translate the tanto Yasuke received from an actual short sword/wakizashi."

There are multiple problems with this removal of yours.

• The word 短刀 (tantō) literally means "short sword": 短 (tan, "short") + 刀 (tō, "sword").
• Going back to the source material provided earlier today by @Thibaut, the Japanese uses the term さや巻 (sayamaki), also spelled in modern dictionaries as 鞘巻 (sayamaki, literally saya "scabbard, sheath" + maki "winding", in reference to decorations on the sheath). If you can read Japanese, the Japanese Wikipedia article at ja:短刀 describes the sayamaki as a specific kind of tantō. See also the entries here at Kotobank, further describing this as a kind of 腰刀 (koshi-gatana, "hip-sword"). The Kotobank page for 腰刀 glosses that term as:
  • 「腰にさす、鍔のない短い刀。鞘巻など。腰ざし。」

  Koshi ni sasu, tsuba no nai mijikai katana. Sayamaki nado. Koshi-zashi.

  "A short katana with no tsuba [hilt-guard], worn at the hip [stuck through one's obi or sash-belt]. Such as a sayamaki. Koshi-zashi [any hip-worn sword].")

You are correct that the weapon given to Yasuke was not a wakizashi: it appears that instead it was a sayamaki. However, a sayamaki is not any kind of knife or dagger that is smaller than a wakizashi. The main difference between the sayamaki and the wakizashi is not size, but rather that the sayamaki has no tsuba or hilt-guard, whereas the wakizashi does have one.

In light of the concerns that Professor Hiraku himself voices about the provenance of the Japanese quote, we may ultimately decide that this English rendering needs some kind of qualifying statement. That said, this quote does appear to be backed by secondary sources, per Wikipedia requirements. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 20:02, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

I didn't think of it this way, thanks for the additional input Eirikr. However since it has no tsuba, it must not have been something that would be used as a battle weapon, and tantos typically do not possess tsubas. It seems kind of odd for a sword such as a katana or tachi to lack a tsuba, whereas tanto are commonly found without one. In any case, since we do not have any actual details on the sword itself, would it be reasonable to translate it directly as a "sayamaki" instead of any different type of sword, due to the lack of context and also of the academic sources provided? Hexenakte (talk) 20:21, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi I am Japanese and would like to point out about the below record.

>>然に彼黒坊被成御扶持、名をハ号弥助と、さや巻之のし付幷私宅等迄被仰付、依時御道具なともたさせられ候、(この黒人は扶持を貰い、名を弥助と言い、私宅と鞘巻（腰刀の一種）を与えられ、時には道具持ちをしていた)

This black guy was given 扶持 Fuchi, his name is Yasuke, He was given 私宅 a private house and 腰刀 Koshigatana (shortest sword) and sometimes he carried 道具 tools.

>>上様御ふち候、大うす（デウス）進上申候、くろ男御つれ候、身ハすみノコトク、タケハ六尺二分、名ハ弥助ト云

（信長様が、扶持を与えたという、宣教師から進呈されたという、黒人を連れておられた。身は墨のようで、身長は約1.82メートル、名は弥助と云うそうだ）

Lord Nobunaga had a black man accompanied who was given by a missionary. He was given Fuchi and his height is about 180cm and his body was like a black ink and his name is said to be Yasuke.

There is no words of 家臣 vassal nor 俸禄 ほうろく Horoku nor 屋敷 grand house in these two records and also other records.

There is no records of Yasuke being 家来 retainer nor 家臣 vassal nor 小姓 Kosho. We don't even know he was 家来 retainer even, as Yasuke was given by a missionary as a slave. So it is very likely that Yasuke served Nobunaga as a slave. Because a retainer or vassal should have a free will to choose who he wants to serve but Yasuke had no free will. He was just given to Nobunaga by Jesuit like a property. He was never a free man.

Also 俸禄 is a term used mostly in Edo era. 扶持 Fuchi became used as a salary in Edo era. But during Sengoku era 扶持 Fuchi also meant rice, food, food expenses.

And 私宅 private house is different from 屋敷 grand house.

I don't think giving a private house is a special treatment as Yasuke needed a place he sleeps without people coming to see his rare black skin all the time. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 10:28, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello, I just wanted to point out, that nowhere does it say in the source text that Yasuke was given a Koshigatana (腰刀) but rather a Sayamaki (さや巻 / 鞘巻). From the help of Eirikr, the sayamaki is determined to be a ceremonial sword of some kind without a tsuba, meaning that it was not meant to be a battlefield weapon. This could be from as short as a tanto to as long as a tachi (assuming Nobunaga didn't give him a nodachi), although I wonder what the point of long swords without a tsuba would be for, I think Eirikr might be able to provide valuable insight on this.

Another thing, you are correct there is no Kosho (小姓) title, this has been removed from the article as discussed previously. We do know that he received a Fuchi (扶持) which this could mean rice or actual coinage, but without further context (since we aren't given any) we cannot say for sure which. The fuchi is not determining of any status anyways, as low attendants were given the same type of stipend as many other examples provided in the Shincho Koki as we discussed in Talk:Yasuke#Establish_a_clear_distinction_between_Bushi_and_Samurai, although I ask that you excuse original OR I have done for some of the parts, I have corrected this in other sections (see Talk:Yasuke#Samurai_status, Talk:Yasuke#Reaction_of_Thomas_Lockley, Talk:Yasuke#On_the_subject_of_academic_sources, Talk:Yasuke#Priority_of_title_justification, etc. etc.), but that section talks about the use of fuchi and how it does not apply exclusively to samurai.

As for the private residence (私宅), we do not know whether this means a proper house or just a private quarters like how Eirikr once pointed out, "you can stay in private quarters over there in the unused gardener's cottage, instead of bunking together in the servants' quarters". It is hard to justify it as the former as Yasuke was never given any koku estate, which would come with the house, as for example, Tomo Shorin, an individual named in the Shincho Koki, was stated to be given a private residence, land of 100 koku, notably two swords (大小, Daisho) - one long sword (太刀, Tachi) and one short sword (脇指, wakizashi) - a kosode (小袖, kosode, basically a short but wide sleeve version (and predecessor) of the kimono) and a horse (馬, Uma) with a set of armor/gear (皆具, Kaigu). This individual was given these gifts on the spot by Nobunaga due to him impressing Nobunaga with his talents in sumo, which is far more than what Yasuke received. As you will note, Tomo Shorin was given a residence AND a koku land estate, and not a small one by any means, so it is reasonable to say that he was given a proper house unlike Yasuke. Hexenakte (talk) 16:23, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

鞘巻 Sayamaki is a shortest katana in middle age as below.

http://muromachishomin.livedoor.blog/archives/9089716.html

This type of sword was not for battles, and people other than bushi were carrying.

I have not researched yet if Hideyoshi hunted this type of short sword as well in his Sword Hunt... but people including peasants, merchants, craftsman, monks, etc. had all kinds of swords during Nobunaga era for sure.

Even a small hut could be 私宅 a private house. Lockley claims that Nobunaga favored Yasuke like a closest ally but if that is true Nobunaga would have Yasuke live just in his residence but instead Yasuke lived in a house separated from Nobunaga's residence. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 09:09, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

In my recent post, I used the English word samurai for the convenience of the readers, but I think that the content should be discussed using the Japanese words 侍 or 武士. In addition, discussions should be based on materials written in Japanese, and I think it is inappropriate to base discussions on English materials, even if they are written by Japanese people. --EgiptiajHieroglifoj (talk) 22:22, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

Who changed the content in Wikipedia (semi-locked)?

The content says of Yasuke "as a samurai" which has no historical records.

Yasuke serving as a slave is a lot more likely from historical records.

This "as a samurai" in the content is a blatant history falsification.

As a Japanese, I oppose this "as a samurai" expression the content. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 10:31, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Yasuke’s height

Re: diffs #1228431545, #1228451819

The quote 「身長は6尺2分」 that we see here and there on the media, seems to come from Matsudaira Ietada's diary, Tenshō 10, month 4, day 19.

Could someone who can read cursive Japanese script help confirm? Thibaut (talk) 09:24, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

Nevermind, found a transcript: 「身ハすみノコトク、タケハ六尺二分、名ハ弥助ト云」 and this very useful database of cursive characters.

We know that one shaku is approximately equal to 30.3 cm but what about one 分 and what is its reading? Thibaut (talk) 09:35, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

分 is 1/100 of a 尺 (shaku) according to jisho.org. It's worth checking things like this also on JP Wikipedia pages: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BA

The section here is relevant:

尺という単位は古代中国の殷の時代には既にあったとされている。『漢書』律暦志では音階の基本音（黄鐘）を出す音の笛に、粒が均一な秬黍（くろきび）90粒を並べ、その1粒分の長さを分（ぶ）と定義している。そして10分を1寸、10寸を1尺とする。古代の1尺の長さは正確にはわからないが、出土文物からの推測では、戦国から秦にかけての1尺は23 cm前後であった。漢代でもあまり変わらず、23–24 cm程度であった。文献によると周の尺はその8割ほどの長さ（約20 cm）であった。 81.223.103.71 (talk) 11:35, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

The entry on this page for April 19, 1582 (https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/772514/1/54) mentions Yasuke by name, and so far this is the only primary source that I've seen that does so. Transcribed into print as written in the source, without punctuation:

「雨降　上様御ふち候大うす進上申候くろ男御つれ候身ハすミノコトクタケハ六尺二分名ハ弥助ト云」

Rough-and-ready translation (my own):

Rain falls. Boss [Nobunaga] stipend, Dai usu ["Deus": Jesuits?] presented [something to a superior], black man brought along; body like ink, height 6 shaku [traditional Japanese foot] 2 bu [1/10th of a sun "inch", 1/100th of a shaku "foot"], name of "Yasuke".

The first three clauses could be interpreted as modifiers on the final clause, in which case we could tweak the translation a bit and rework for a more natural English rendering to say "Black man brought along, who has a stipend from the Boss, and whom the Jesuits presented;..."

The exact length of the shaku varied somewhat over time and place, much as the exact length of the "foot" was also somewhat unstable. Using a modern standardized length of 30.3cm for the shaku, Yasuke would have been 182.4cm in height, or 5'11.8" (just shy of 6 feet).

HTH! ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 20:24, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

i could be wrong about this, but isnt Sourou 候 (or 御) a term to tell for example in つれ (brought along), that the 大う (dai u/jesuits) in contrast to the くろ男 (black man) brought HIM along (to present him)? So a word to make the direction of the intention clear?

Because we have the same word in the 上様 (uesama/Oda) and ふち (fuchi) part.

I am asking, because directly afterward we have the Jesuits, so the intention FOR the ふち could be to the Jesuits and not to the black man, who was presented by them.

Maybe Oda gave a salary to the Jesuits, because they presented a man to Oda.

I can confirm the height with 6 shaku and 2 bu.

I can confirm the ink in the section "body like ink", but i am unsure about the body term. Skin or body etc.

I would have attempted with shaky legs, so please have mercy:

Oda gave salary to Jesuits, who presented to him black man, they brought him along, he has a body of ink, he has 6 Shaku 2 Bu height, called Yasuke.

--ErikWar19 (talk) 00:15, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

候 (sōrou) is basically synonymous with あり (ari, "to have; to be; to exist"), as described in various references. See also the entries at Kotobank: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%80%99%E3%81%B5-511813#E3.83.87.E3.82.B8.E3.82.BF.E3.83.AB.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.B3.89. Like ari, sōrou would come at the end of a statement. 御 (mi-) is an honorific prefix, distinct from copular ("to be") verb 候 (sōrou).

The source text doesn't have any directional, so not necessarily "for" anyone. That said, we know from other records that Nobunaga did not give a salary to the Jesuits: they were independent, and not on Nobunaga's payroll. He might have given them gifts of money, but not salaries.

The term for "body" was simply 身 (mi). See also our entry at Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%BA%AB#Japanese:_mi ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 04:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

身ハすミノコトク - his body was like ink

The old aspect of this is using 身 (mi) to denote "body". Nowadays it would be 体 (karada) or 身体 (shintai/karada).

I agree on the general lack of directionality. An understanding of a broader context is necessary to judge who did what. 81.223.103.71 (talk) 07:07, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

6尺2寸は182cm（about 6 feet）です。

6尺2寸 is 182cm（about 6 feet）.

Who just interpreted that 6尺2寸 is 6 feet 2 inches?

The level of foreigners of understanding of Japanese culture is not reliable.

Why wouldn't the English Wikipedia refer to the Japanese Wikipedia regarding Japanese history and culture? Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 10:27, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia, including the Japanese Wikipedia, cannto be used as a reliable source per WP:USERGENERATED and WP:NOTSOURCE. Gitz (talk) (contribs) 10:37, 28 June 2024 (UTC)

Yasuke mentioned by Portuguese

While this became a controversial topic, the Portuguese source of his introduction to Nobunaga describes him clearly in a public available source as a "Cafre". (i will call him C., because it is today a slur) Not problematic....except, that the term C. is used on other spaces of the same source. In one part (page 88) we see a discussion about black people, who were angry at the Portuguese, so that the Portuguese had to flee and a C. was killed with an arrow. The N-word is used quite a few times to speak about black people in the book, but not in the paragraphs about Japan, but to speak about Africans.

I will highlight once again, that the Portuguese source differentiate between not owned, black people (N-word) and C., their property. In a different section about the C. of Nobunaga (Yasuke) is mentioned, that the C. was given away to Nobunaga, like a property without any mentioning of the motives of the C. in any of these mentions of them.

A different section already used in this article, used the same term and translated it with slave in the quote about his capture. In this case we have even articles talking about the potential racial intentions of this Japanese person to call him an animal. The articles, like the translated quote, call Yasuke a slave.

At last i want to highlight once again, that the term C. was heavily used by Portuguese to describe slaves in India. sources: https://purl.pt/15229 ErikWar19 (talk) 18:05, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

With all due respect, this strikes me as very clear original research. Perhaps others will disagree. Happy Friday. Dumuzid (talk) 18:09, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Agreed with @Dumuzid — @ErikWar19, this seems like original research.

In addition, it seems like you're arriving at mistaken conclusions.

As we can see in the 1603 Nippo Jisho entry here for the Japanese term Curobǒ (modern 黒坊 kurobō), the Portuguese definition of "Cafre, ou homem negro" strongly suggests that "cafre" did not mean "slave", but rather was a homonym for "black person".

As we can also see in the Portuguese Wikipedia article pt:Cafre, this did not mean "slave", and was instead a term that referred to black people from Africa, particularly southern Africa.

Cafre ou kafir (do árabe كافر : kāfir: 'infiel') foi um termo que se tornou ofensivo (especialmente na sua versão inglesa, kaffir) que designa uma pessoa negra, na África do Sul e noutros países africanos.

Em português, foi inicialmente um termo neutro, aplicado aos negros africanos. 'Cafre' ou 'cafreal' designava o povo da Cafraria (ou Cafreria), a qual, segundo os textos antigos, seria uma região muito extensa da África Austral. 'Cafre' referir-se-ia a qualquer indivíduo da população africana banta, afim dos zulus, não muçulmana, do sudeste africano. Introduzido na língua portuguesa no século XVI, a palavra foi usado por Camões no plural, 'cafres', no Canto V (47) de Os Lusíadas, em 1572.

---

Cafre or kafir (from Arabic كافر: kafir, "infidel") was a term that became offensive (especially in its English version kaffir) that designated a black person, from South Africa and other African countries.

In Portuguese, this was initially a neutral term, applied to black Africans. "Cafre" or "cafreal" designated the people of Cafraria (or Cafreria), which, according to ancient texts, was a very extensive region of southern Africa. "Cafre" would refer to any individual of the Bantu populations, such as the Zulus, non-Muslim, from southwest Africa. Introduced to the Portuguese language in the 16th century, the word was used by [Luís de] Camões in the plural, "cafres", in Canto V (47) of the Os Lusíadas, in 1572.

Erik, bear in mind that the Cafres Wikipedia article you linked to is specifically about the "people born in Réunion of African origins." This is a distinct subset meaning of the word "cafre", which is not reflective of the broader meaning in use in Portuguese in the late 1500s. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 19:42, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

As i stated already exhaustingly prior, this is not original research @Dumuzid, this is in fact the sources already used by this wikipedia article over years?, maybe just 10 months.

https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/yasuke_jp_609347f7e4b09cce6c26a9b2 the biggest sourced article on this article, is using the term slave in their quotes and in these article and explicit in the section about the Honnō-ji Incident and in source 22 and 27 it is mentioned too. We already have the word slave standing in a quote in the Article.

The sources call him C. and the translations of multiple RS, already used by us, call him by these Portuguese sources, a slave.

At the same time, to debunk the opinion, that C. could mean in this book something different, i gave a source, that in a different instant with free black people the Portuguese writer made an effort to differentiate between black people and C.

We just purposely evade this term in RS to this point in the Portuguese sources and Japanese articles.

It is not original research to highlight our contrast to our own sources used in this article, thereby ignoring the first sentences of Verifiability. In the English Wikipedia, verifiability means other people using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than editors' beliefs, opinions,[...]

Where is the source, that these Japanese articles are wrong in their translations, that Yasuke was a slave?

Why are you using quotations provided by these articles, who call Yasuke a slave, if you disbelieve in the reliability of these sources without doing anything against these sources over months and without any intention to fix these issues?

I allowed you to see into the entirety of the reports of the Jesuits in Japan, pointed even at the sources, who talk about C. in a manner of slave-posession. No reaction.

How is it possible to give away a human as a gift, without owning him? Why did these Portuguese, who talk about Yasuke, differentiate between free black people with the n-word and C. to describe Yasuke? What makes Yasuke different from a free black person by the term C.? At least look at this contradiction into the provided sources from me and don't strike blindly a original research claim.

@Eirikr The dictionary is a dictionary to translate Japanese to Portuguese, maybe ask yourself, why are Portuguese calling black people first Cafre and than people?

Cafre has on Wikipedia multiple related articles with small different language differences. One of these articles is about the slur-word for example, one of these articles is about the Arabic roots etc.

Your Portuguese article on a side-note wrote later, to use your own words, reflective of the broader meaning in use in Portuguese in the late 1500s:

Seguindo a terminologia de Leão, o Africano, o clérigo e historiador inglês Richard Hakluyt (1552 - 1616) igualmente se refere a essa população como Cafars ou Cafari, no sentido de infiéis ou descrentes. Ao falar dos escravos ("slaves called 'Cafari' ") e de certos habitantes da Etiópia ("and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars") Hakluyt usa aqueles dois termos; ao referirse a uma porção da costa da África, utiliza a expressão "land of Cafraria".

I linked to the Reunion C. to make the main distinction clear, but this may be still hard to understand, so maybe look at the Sri Lanka Kaffirs to get the point or maybe read the article about the slur-word. These black population in Goa or other Indian Ocean colonies were called C. by colonists, because they came from Africa and they were not brought to these colonies as tourists or guests, Eirikr. Please accept the reality of live for these people in these colonies at these times.

There are Portuguese slave-trade involved Jesuits, calling Yasuke, a black person, with a term typical used for slaves in their colonies (explicit to differentiate them from Indian slaves btw.). We have multiple RS, calling him a slave. We have wiki-articles, linked by yourself, pointing at the use of the term for slaves for black people at these times.

What is the problem?

Why don't you download the pdf, search for the n-word and C-word and read the paragraphs. It is only 15-16 mentions and you ge tto my core problem.

they use 2 terms to describe black people. One for the Africans, one for their Yasuke and slaves. This goes hand in hand with our reliable sources mentioning him as a slave.

--ErikWar19 (talk) 21:41, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure where to start with the issues. Thus, in no particular order:

• The source you say you gave is presumably this: https://purl.pt/15229

This links through to two PDF files, the first of which took me about four minutes to download on a decent connection (clocking around 900+Mbps download). This PDF is 976 pages long. You gave no indication which of the two PDFs we should look at, no indication of which page, no quote even. This first PDF (unsure about the second) is also a compilation of images, which are not searchable for text.

→ Without at least a page number, this is useless as a citeable reference. You cannot expect us to read through 900+ pages to find whatever example you have in mind.

• You seem to have misunderstood the context of your quote from pt:Cafre#Etimologia. That describes how Englishman Richard Hakluyt used the word "Cafari" when writing in English. As English, this is separate from how the word "cafre" was used by the Portuguese.

Moreover, in the context of Hakluyt's text, it becomes clear that the "slaves called Cafari" phrase did not signify that the word "slaves" was equivalent with the word "Cafari", but rather that this particular group of slaves happened to belong to the group or ethnicity called "Cafari". He used the word "in allusion to a portion of the coast of Africa (“land of Cafraria”)." See also Kaffir_(racial_term)#Early_English.

I make no argument that Yasuke was or was not a slave, in relation to the Portuguese Jesuits.

I do take issue with your apparent misapprehension that the term "cafre" necessarily means "slave". I cannot find any reference that states that "cafre" means "slave", not even monolingual Portuguese references like the Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa. Here is their entry for "cafre": https://dicionario.priberam.org/cafre. No mention of the word escravo ("slave") anywhere on the page. Likewise, their entry for "escravo" (https://dicionario.priberam.org/escravo) has no mention anywhere of the word "cafre". ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 00:06, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

ErikWar19 - My apologies. Original research may have been a bit off the mark; WP:SYNTH may capture it better. You are reaching a conclusion not explicitly stated in the sources when you analyze their terminology and draw conclusions therefrom. Cheers. Dumuzid (talk) 01:37, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

apologies accepted, of course, but i have to intervene again, as my first claim is entirely about terminology consistency in a singular source, we already use in this article. i don't take 2 sources and combine them. The source itself is not used in a consistent manner as it uses the n-word and C. in different sense.

Additional, it is not Synth to point out, that multiple reliable sources in the article already state in words and quotes, that Yasuke was a slave from the Portuguese viewpoint.

Additional, it is not Synth to point out, that to argue against this fact, would meant, to discredit 2-3 additional reliable sources in our article, who are talking about these quotes, who are even partly featured in this article and these sources call him partly a slave too.

the original source call Yasuke by a term, used to describe slaves by Portuguese in Asia, Japanese articles translate these sources with the term slave for Yasuke and articles talk about these quotes and interpret them, while calling Yasuke a slave.

And we use these sources in our article and excluded the term slave.

It is not Synth, when both sources state the same thing. I would rather ask to review your own views as Cherrypicking ErikWar19 (talk) 02:59, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

the second PDF allows the search of the text and is identical with the first PDF. Is has the size of 108MB. If you don't want to download something, there is a public version, but i presume without a search version.

To claim, that the word cafre was not used in a reference to slaves in Goa is like calling the n-word not a word used predominant for slaves in the USA in the early 1800s, but only to describe as an American slave-owner the original location of these black people on his farms. Surely they were not slaves.

Strangely you will not find in modern English dictionary, that the n-word was used as a synonym for racial enforced slavery, but just as a term to describe, as an insult, black people. It is still oblivious, that in the context of these times and the actions of these Portuguese slave owners, the term cafre had a clear message involved, that a modern dictionary wouldn't even think to portray for good reasons.

Sources using the term explicit involved with Portuguese slave trade to describe explicit African slave trade is laughable easy to find.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41930225

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26362123 and without access to jstor, maybe this?

https://repositorio.ul.pt/bitstream/10451/64058/1/LS_book-slave%20trade.pdf And before you may ignore it, i would recommend to read the quote 12 of the last source to the last sentence. In the section about terminology.

--ErikWar19 (talk) 02:37, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

As a Japanese, I also believe Yasuke was a slave.

This is why Jesuit gave Yasuke to Nobunaga like a property.

Even in the Japanese historical record such as 家忠日記 Ietada Diary by 松平家忠 Matsudaira Ietada, he wrote that Yasuke was GIVEN by a missionary.

And according to Jesuit, 明智光秀 Akechi Mitsuhide said of Yasuke as 黒奴 black slave and 動物 animal and he spared his life and returned him to Jesuit.

Even Jesuit wrote "a black slave we gave to Nobunaga" in their report. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 10:49, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

it could be, that the term slave has to be seen in a matter of time. In some rare cases slaves were freed by long term service for a master, explicit military service as a serving boy for a higher ranked person. This was the status quo in India and it is to presume, that the Portuguese at least saw Yasuke in this light, as his origin in clearly from these Portuguese and from India (and the ~area of Mozambique as the area of origin.)

A lot of this view, that he is from Mozambique, is just speculation of academics, but it is most likely and thereby to be presumed to be correct. But this is already implying slavery as the form to transport him from this are to India and later Japan.

As we have accepted the Mozambique-roots of Yasuke, it would make sense to at least allow the necessary clarification on the article, that Yasuke's present in Japan must have lead to a slavery background for Yasuke at some point of his live.

Even people, who used the term retainer on him, like Lockley has to acknowledge this potential slavery background of Yasuke and just presumes, that he probably got his freedom already in India, without giving any prove for this claim.

The sources about him in Japan don't mention in any paragraph a independent action of Yasuke (except his surrender) in contrast to other matters, like him being called a gift as a person and him getting send back to his former presumed owners and not killed, because of his mere slave status.

We have already Japanese secondary sources calling him a slave and we have a source (about Portuguese slave trade, the repositorio-pdf above) stating, that in Asia Cafre was a typical term for slaves. My source at the start tries to highlight, that a C. and a group of black people refereed with the n-word was mentioned by the Portuguese in one singular instant. The source is calling Yasuke a C. multiple times too.

In the sentence with both words, N-word and C., we can see the different use of both terms to talk about two forms of black people, that can make us understand the difference between both terms for the Portuguese and thereby understanding the status of Yasuke as a member of one of these groups. I argued, that the term Cafre is used for black people in servitude for the Portuguese, while the n-word was used to describe free black people, who reacted violent against the Portuguese and killed a Cafre.

This sentence is kinda important, because the Portuguese sources would only use his actual name once as a name used by Japanese. They don't use a name to talk about him, they call him only a Cafre.

This doesn't contradicts the Japanese view on Yasuke, but it clearly shows us the view on Yasuke for the Portuguese. --ErikWar19 (talk) 15:15, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

@ErikWar19, I am not disputing whether Yasuke was a slave or not. I am disputing your contention that Yasuke's description in Portuguese as "cafre" necessarily means that Yasuke was a slave.

Even in the sources you've given me, they do not use the word "cafre" to mean "slave". https://repositorio.ul.pt/bitstream/10451/64058/1/LS_book-slave%20trade.pdf is an excellent example.

• You recommended that I look at footnote 12. Here is the relevant main-body paragraph, and footnote.

The term Negro (Black) in Macao and Japan meant slave (in general), or dark-skinned (African) slave, whereas Cafres (Kaffirs), from the Arabic كَافِر kāfir¹², designated someone ungrateful, unfaithful, an unbeliever, a renegade, or a non-Muslim.

¹² Originally, the Portuguese used this word to designate the non-Bantu populations they encountered south of present-day Angola, as they were descending the western coast of Africa on their way to India, more specifically, the Khoisan of present-day Namibia (c.1484–88). Interestingly enough, the Portuguese chose to name the Khoisan Cafres since they realized that the latter were neither of the Nilo-Saharan nor of the Niger-Congo ethnic/racial groups who are/were either Muslims/Islamic or had a very sophisticated religious system. Obviously, the Khoisan had/have a very sophisticated philosophical and religious system. Unaware of this, the Portuguese only judged them based on their looks and their nomadic lifestyle. Cafres—from the Arabic كَافِر kāfir, “infidels”, “renegade”, or “he/she who rejected the word of God”—was then the term that came to their minds since it was used in the Iberian Peninsula at the time of the Muslim occupation (711–1492). In Asia, then, the Portuguese and their descendants used this term to refer to someone with a dark skin tone, most of the time a slave.

Some of these details don't entirely agree with other resources I've seen (stating instead that "cafre" came into the Portuguese language in the 1500s, and referred to non-Muslim Bantu populations of southeast Africa — not non-Bantus of southwest Africa), but setting that aside, it is clear that Lúcio de Sousa, author of The Portuguese Slave Trade in Early Modern Japan, did not view the word "cafre" as synonymous with "slave".

• Further down on page 215, we have part of Table 4.4 "Asian slaves (1588–1643) (cont.)". In the "Short Biography" column, at the bottom of the page, we see:

On the return trip, departing from the port of Kochi, the ships carried 256 slaves, namely: Kaffirs, Bengalis, Canarins, Animals, Corumbins, Javanese, and Chinese.

"Kaffir" (used here by the author as the English synonym for Portuguese "cafre") is being used here in a way that is clearly distinct from the meaning of "slave".

Granted, in Portuguese circles at that time, it does appear that most people of African descent and who were not Christian were subject to possible enslavement, and this would include anyone in the "cafre" category. However, someone being a non-Muslim person from southeast Africa and called a "cafre" in Portuguese documentation does not necessarily mean that that person was a slave. Much like a person called a "negro" in US texts prior to the Civil War does not necessarily mean that that person was a slave.

----

The Japanese source you pointed to for calling Yasuke explicitly a 奴隷 (dorei, "slave") was the Huffington Post Japan article at https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/yasuke_jp_609347f7e4b09cce6c26a9b2. All of the quotes in that article appear to be translation into Japanese of the original letters from the Jesuits in Portuguese, where the translator renders "cafre" as 黒人奴隷 (kokujin dorei, literally "black person" + "slave"). That said, the quality of the Huffington Post reporting is not high; they misattribute at least some of the text, such as this bit.

黒人奴隷は少し日本語が分かったので、信長は彼と話して飽きることがなかった。
Kokujin dorei wa sukoshi Nihongo ga wakatta no de, Nobunaga wa kare to hanashite akiru koto ga nakatta.
The black slave understood some Japanese, so Nobunaga did not get bored talking with him.

The article attributes this to Fróis, but this is clearly the letter written by Mexia, as I excerpted above in the #The Tono Notation section:

& assim não se fartava de o ver muitas vezes, & falar com elle, por que sabia mediocremente a lingoa de Japão,
& so he [Nobunaga] didn't get tired of seeing him [Yasuke] often, & talking to him, because he knew the language of Japan mediocrely,

This kind of misattribution damages the reliability of the article. Considering also that this is a pop-culture online magazine and not an academic work, I don't think we can use this to make any factual statements about the historical Yasuke.

----

Rather than focusing on the word "cafre", I think a better case could be made by paying attention to how the Portuguese letters describe Yasuke in other ways. I think this bit from Luís Fróis's letter of November 1582, reporting on the death of Nobunaga, presents a clearer case. This is on the left-hand (facing, unnumbered) page 66 in the Segunda Parte ("Second Part") PDF (https://purl.pt/15229/4/res-402-v/res-402-v_item5/res-402-v_PDF/res-402-v_PDF_24-C-R0150/res-402-v_0000_capa-capa_t24-C-R0150.pdf), or page 136 as numbered by the PDF file itself, we see the following text, starting about halfway down the right-hand column. Here I give my transcription, my updates to modernized spellings, and the adjusted Google Translate output (emphasis mine):

Temiamos mais porque hum cafre que o padre Viſitador deixou a Nobunânga polo deſejar, depois de Nobunánga ſer morto ſe foi a caſa do principe, & ali eſteue pelehando hũ grande pedaço: hum criado de Aquechí ſe chegou a elle, & he pedio a cataná, que não tiueſſe medo elle lha entregou, & o outro foi perguntar a Aquechì, que fario do cafre, reſpondeo: eſſe cafre he beſtial, que não no matem, la o depoſitem na igreja dos padres da India, polo qual nos começamos aquietar algũa couſa, & mais quando vimos a grande miſericordia q́ o ſenhor vſou cõ eſta caſa em ſe ir poucos dias antes o cunhado de Nobunãga pera o Sacáy, porq́ ſem duuida pera o matarẽ a elle q́ tãbẽ auia de ſer dos mortos era neceſſario q́ poſeisẽ fogo a noſſa igreja que eſtaua pegada cõ ſa caſa, ou elle ſe auia de recolher a noſſa por ſer mais forte que a ſua, & aſsi milhor nos auiaõ de queimar, & deſtruir a noſſa.

Temiamos mais porque hum cafre que o padre Visitador deixou a Nobunânga pelo desejar, depois de Nobunánga ser morto se foi a casa do principe, & ali esteve pelehando hum grande pedaço: hum criado de Aquechí se chegou a elle, & he pedio a catana, que não tivesse medo elle lha entregou, & o outro foi perguntar a Aquechì, que fario do cafre, respondeo: esse cafre he bestial, que não no matem, que la o depositem na igreja dos padres da India, pelo qual nos começamos aquietar alguma cousa, & mais quando vimos a grande misericordia que o senhor usou com esta casa em se ir poucos dias antes o cunhado de Nobunãga para o Sacáy, porque para o matarem a elle que tambem avia de ser dos mortos era necessario que pusessem fogo a nossa igreja que estava pegada com sa casa, ou elle se avia de recolher a nossa por ser mais forte que a sua, & assi milhor nos aviando de queimar, & destruir a nossa.

We feared more because a kaffir that Father Visitador [[[Alessandro Valignano]]] left to Nobunânga [to do with] as he wished, after Nobunánga was killed, went to the prince's [Nobutada's] house, & there he was fighting a great deal: a servant from Akechi approached him, & he asked for the katana, not to be afraid, he gave it to him, & the other went to ask Akechi, what would he do with the kaffir, he replied: this kaffir is beastly, don't kill him, deposit him there in the church of the priests of India, through which we began to calm some things down, & more when we saw the great mercy the lord showed towards this house in having Nobunãga's brother-in-law go to Sacáy a few days before, because without doubt in order to kill him, who was to be of the dead, it was necessary for them to set fire to our church, which was attached to his house, or he was going to save ours because it was stronger than his, & thus better dispatching us by burning, & destroy ours.

That bit about "deixou a Nobunânga polo deſejar" ("left to Nobunaga [to do with] as he wished") only makes sense if Yasuke had no real agency: this implies that Yasuke was, to the Jesuits at least, a slave.

All that said, these letters from the Jesuits are still primary materials. We Wikipedia editors would be on much more solid ground if we can find secondary, reliable, and ideally academic materials that clarify Yasuke's status, with explicitly stated reasoning and citations of source texts. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 18:52, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

@Eirikr thx for your view of the source.

the statement about the meaning of the term stands in the paragraph about the terminology and this includes the terminology the PDF is using, while the quote clearly states, that in Asia, then, the Portuguese and their descendants used this term to refer to someone with a dark skin tone, most of the time a slave." So we have a secondary material, that clarify the term used in context of slavery by the Portuguese. Even the other quote once again uses the term slave and than specify a group of slaves with the term C.

I posted this PDF to highlight the often to be presumed context of this term as a potential view at least, how the primary material of the Jesuits have to be understood, if we want to understand the term in their writings.

There i want to highlight the Page 153 (right side).

It starts with os Portugueses comecarao etc.

I will just summarize, your translation will probably be better, but the Portuguese began to assemble two or three rifles to defend themselves against the black people (n-word) of the land,....seem to be the start of it.

Afterward the priest try to talk with these black people of the land and in the followed aggression a C. died. C. has to posses thereby at least a difference to these native black people for the Portuguese, that may help our understanding of both term.

The interesting use of the term cafre and the n-word is at the end of the page and a bit to the next page. i think the writer even highlights the fact, that the N.s killed one of them. So this section is at least worthy to be viewed.

--ErikWar19 (talk) 20:34, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

Digging through the meat of that letter, "Carta que o padre Pero Gomes escreveo de Amacao a outro padre acerca do seu naufragio que fez indo da China pera Iapão a treze de dezembro, de 1582" ("Letter written by Father Pero Gomes from Macau to another father about his shipwreck on the way from China to Japan on the 13th of December, 1582"), it is clear that the "negros" mentioned were likely residents of the South China coast, or of Taiwan, or possibly even the Philippines (it is not entirely clear where Father Gomes's ship came ashore). Given other Portuguese sources clearly defining cafre as meaning at least "black resident of southern Africa", this would be a meaningful distinction between the "cafre" people who were part of the Portuguese sailing group, and the "negro" people who were local residents, and who were likely visually distinct from sub-Saharan African people. Again, I really don't think that the "cafre" term as used in this letter necessarily means "slave". Sub-Saharan African people in Portuguese contexts were frequently slaves, but the term "cafre" does not, in itself, appear to include any such "slave" meaning. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 22:53, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

well, to the idea, that "negros" would mean people of Southasian areas, i would like to point at the ending of this paragraph: nos espreitam como a inimigos, e hu cafe mataram com frechas, e pou eo menos a outros tres, cadahu dos quais trazia tres quatro frechadas: de nossa parte lhe matarão hum negro.

I just suspect, that they didnt used the term "negros" for Southern Asian people, while using the adjective "negro" to describe a cafre. It is more likely, that these people,were some natives on the African coast, seen in a contrast with "cafre" as black people, who served the Portuguese sailing group, mainly as slaves. -- ErikWar19 (talk) 20:36, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

"It is more likely, that these people,were some natives on the African coast,"

@ErikWar19, I am concerned at your apparently deep ignorance of geography. Father Gomes's letter is specifically about a shipwreck that occurred on a voyage from China to Japan. More specifically, from Macao to Japan.

In terms of distance, from Macao to Japan is roughly analogous to the distance from Gibraltar to London. Thus, traveling from Macao to Japan by way of Africa is roughly analogous to traveling from Gibraltar to London, by way of Argentina. This is preposterous and makes no sense whatsoever.

In addition, we know that Father Gomes's letter was written on December 3, 1582, about events earlier that July. If the voyage had traveled from Macao, to Africa, to Japan, and had left Macao on July 6 as stated in the letter, they would still have been en route by December, not back in Macao (again as stated in the letter).

No, it is absolutely unlikely that the "negros" mentioned in the letter "were some natives on the African coast". ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 17:33, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

oh, i saw the mention of the Canarians prior and knew, that Alessandro Valignano was since Feb 1582 on his way back to Portugal, but this was a letter of Pedro Gomez still in Asia. (on a sidenote, is this the Gomez, who was Spanish and later involved in the Philippines in the 90ths?)

Still it is curious, that he is comparing the cafre with these natives and with the term negro.... --ErikWar19 (talk) 03:54, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes, we need the analysis of the terms used during that time in Portuguese. And I appreciate your insight. Japanese translation of the word cafre in the Jesuit repots is "黒奴". 黒 is literally black. 奴 means slaves from the ancient times in Japan. Slaves in Japan were rather treated better than black slaves in America. So people tend to exclude all types of slaves from the slave category because due to the American media influence, slaves are only thought of as black slaves of America.

The important fact is that Yasuke was given by Jesuit to Nobunaga without Yasuke's free will. Lockley is a culprit to try to change our history based on his wishful speculation.

For example, the below speculation by Lockley is total nonsense as the historical fact is that Yasuke was GIVEN by Jesuit to Nobunaga as a gift.

>>he probably got his freedom already in India

And the Jesuit repot mentions that the missionaries thought of making money by showing Yasuke to Japanese people in town who they thought would pay to see a rare black man.

Also, there were slaves in Japan during Sengoku period. The slave system has been banned from sometime in the ancient times in Japan but there were many slaves existed especially after famine or wars. During Sengoku era, the defeated places were pillaged for things and people. And some of those kidnapped people were sold to Portuguese slave merchants. The estimate number of Japanese who got shipped as slaves by Portuguese is like 50,000. Hideyoshi got furious when he got to know these slave trading and immediately ordered 伴天連追放令 and banned human trafficking.

The more I research about Yasuke, the more I am convinced that he was merely a slave servant who was treated better for his rarity. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 08:45, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

How the Portuguese treated Africans at the time is a separate topic from how Nobunaga treated Yasuke, so if it is mentioned in the article, I think it should be in a separate section.--EgiptiajHieroglifoj (talk) 22:22, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

my intention would be to add it in the section about his early live.

Yasuke had African roots, and Luís Fróis wrote of Yasuke as Cafre in his letters. Crasset states that Yasuke was a servant brought from India when Alessandro Valignano came to Japan, while Solier states that he was from Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). It has been suggested that Yasuke was likely a Muslim.

In the footnote about the term Cafre or in the section itself should be mentioned, that the majority of the Cafre in service for the Jesuits were slaves and/or that Yasuke had experienced slavery at some part of his live and that some academics presume, that he was a rare case for these slaves to be freed.

The article should represent in some manner the African-Indian slavery of the Portuguese colonial empire at this stage of history in an article of one of it's most famous victim.

the main academic source, who claims, that Yasuke was freed, is Russel. He claims, that as a child in India (so even he agrees, that Yasuke was at some point a slave) he was given back his freedom with zero prove in any source for this claim. We still try to use this claim by Russel in this article 2-3 times as if it would be a fact, that Russel said just as a presumed claim.

This attempt to hide the slave-history of Yasuke under Portuguese rule is on a side-note really hurting the article, as it makes it hard to explain, that the Japanese side, mainly Oda, may had a different view on slavery compared to Yasuke's Portuguese owners and may even gave Yasuke various things to allow him to distance himself from them. But we can't talk about this interesting clash of different cultures by Yasuke's live in Japan, if we hide his clear slavery-background in the article.

--ErikWar19 (talk) 22:45, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

The historical Japanese records and Jesuit records say that Yasuke was GIVE by Jesuit to Nobunaga. People who get treated like a property in human trafficking are slaves.

So Yasuke was a slave. There is no confusion on this.

As a Japanese, I feel a great threat to our culture and history by foreigners who try to falsify our culture and history for the benefits of their interests.

And now someone just edited the content to Yasuke "as a samurai" and put a semi-lock until November when the AC Shadows releases.

Wikipedia is now a tool of black supremacy and DEI propaganda.

We need to stop any attempt for history falsification. Shinjitsunotsuikyu (talk) 11:26, 28 June 2024 (UTC)