African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan

This biography of the first foreign-born samurai and his journey from Africa to Japan is “a readable, compassionate account of an extraordinary life” (The Washington Post).When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world.

Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went.

His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot.

Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned Buddha.