By Owen Ziegler
Staff writer
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May 25, 2024
For centuries, an African slave who entered the orbit of war-torn Japan’s leading daimyo was an interesting historical tidbit. As of last week, he became the catalyst for the latest in the so-called culture wars.
On May 15, developer Ubisoft Quebec announced Assassin's Creed Shadows, an upcoming chapter in the long-running action-adventure series set to take place during Japan’s Sengoku (Warring States) Period (1482-1573). As is common to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, players will control a main character (in Shadows, this is Naoe, a female ninja) through stealth missions usually culminating in the violent elimination of a target. In a slight departure, players will also control Yasuke, a character based on a real-life African slave brought to Japan by Italian Jesuit missionaries and who gained the trust of warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582).
For many gamers, Ubisoft’s announcement was their first introduction to Yasuke, a well-documented historical figure with a strong claim to the title of Japan’s first non-Japanese samurai. For a vocal minority, however, a Black protagonist of a game set in feudal Japan was a call to war.
Critics on X (formerly Twitter) claimed Yasuke was a warrior but never truly made a samurai. On Reddit, some insisted that if Nobunaga endowed a Black man with the status of a samurai it could only have been as a joke, and on YouTube, creators lambasted Ubisoft and claimed gamers would reject “woke Yasuke” en masse. Yasuke’s Wikipedia page is now locked and cannot be edited by non- or newly registered users.
To Thomas Lockley, a Nihon University professor and author of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan,” this deluge of Yasuke hot takes is disappointing.
“What it seems to me is that people who know nothing about Japanese history, know nothing about Japan in most cases and certainly know nothing about the Japanese language and the terminology they’re talking about — suddenly, they know everything,” Lockley tells The Japan Times.
The study of history across cultures as varied as Japan and the West can be problematic when people look for one-to-one comparisons. The act in which a medieval European warrior kneels, is anointed with a sword and rises a knight (itself an invention of later observers) had no equivalent in the Sengoku Period, Lockley explains. In a country embroiled in a civil war with dozens of belligerent fiefdoms, “there was no clear division between 'samurai' and others” until 1588, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobunaga’s successor, began prohibiting the possession of weapons by all but the hereditary nobility.
Being samurai, then, was defined by other means. Whether Yasuke was ever ceremoniously endowed with the rights, privileges and responsibilities of a samurai, he was addressed as “tono” (literally, “lord” or “master”), received a stipend from Nobunaga and carried Nobunaga’s arms, itself a rank of immense honor for the era.
“There’s no piece of paper that says Yasuke was a samurai,” Lockley says, noting that some critics are simply misunderstanding how to interpret the historical record. “But then there’s no piece of paper that says anybody else was a samurai.”
Most telling to Lockley, however, is that no reputable Japanese historian has raised doubts about Yasuke’s samurai bonafides, including Sakujin Kirino, who served as a fact-checker for “African Samurai” and is one of the country’s foremost experts on the 1582 Honnoji Incident, for which Yasuke was believed to be present.
That’s not to say that the study of history can’t be messy, and responsibly telling the story of Yasuke requires a steady, measured approach in modern times — something Ubisoft is all but assured not to do.
Far from a paragon of modern game development, Ubisoft has increasingly released titles with pay-to-win mechanics alongside a precipitous decline in quality since its heyday in the early 2000s. Some gamers have tried to cut through the noise of the Yasuke “controversy” by pointing out these shortcomings, even going so far as to claim Ubisoft is banking on this to drive engagement for a game that may not be able to capture headlines off its post-release experience.
All’s well that ends well for Ubisoft, though, especially if this Yasuke talk convinces gamers to shell out for the Assassin's Creed Shadows Collector’s Edition, a collection of paywalled content, three days of “early access” before the general public and other samurai-themed tchotchkes — all available for the low, low price of $279.99 (about ¥44,000).
Gaming's latest culture war targets Yasuke, Japan's Black samurai
- Thread starter TheCrackMonkey
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2016
Miyazaki had the privilege of starting his career when Japan was on high alert about publicly murdering commies after Asanuma got knifed. They were very much concerned about looking like a reasonable, defanged power instead of a brewing genocidal disaster again. He was, what, 20 in 1960? So they weren't even a decade removed from MacArthur governing them.
God of Nothing
kiwifarms.net
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- Aug 31, 2016
You are not as smart as you think you are.
We are so done at this point, holy shit.
it's almost like i didn't say that at all
they interfered with it, they did not respect it, and they did not accept it
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Fleece Johnson is finally released from prison, but while crossing the street for some KFC, he's hit by a truck. Johnson wakes up in Feudal Japan, and it seems those Samurai want to do things the hard way...
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
The gameplay is kinda like Tenchu but you're a black ninja after fine nobleman booty.
TrinityReformed
kiwifarms.net
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- Nov 9, 2023
Fleece Johnson in: Yellowman Fever
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- Feb 4, 2018
Oh shit an isekai
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- Jul 1, 2017
The only myth about it is that "two-spirit" meant troon. In reality, it meant gay person who dresses as a woman. That article is technically correct but poorly written. Here's Don Pedro Fages, Spanish explorer, from 1770 writing on California Indians (IIRC these are the Chumash people):
"I have submitted substantial evidence that those Indian men who, both here and farther inland, are observed in the dress, clothing and character of women – there being two or three such in each village – pass as sodomites by profession. ... They are called joyas, and are held in great esteem" (source)
Clearly Fages (ironic name lol) is referencing that male prostitution was tolerated among this particular tribe as long as they pretended to be women.
I'll go dig out more old anthropology too from the early 20th century if you want to keep arguing this point. Just search for the keyword "berdache" because that used to be used way more than two-spirit.
You're only correct if you assume that by "gay" you mean modern LGBTQ culture, in which case yes, the few people who lived that lifestyle in Antiquity were indeed interfered with, not respected, and not accepted. There were people who had gay sex with older men (in Rome these men who got fucked like that were called "exoletus"), had way too much gay sex (which was deemed just as bad as having way too much straight sex), or refused to marry. But practicing gay sex within the bounds of acceptable customs was perfectly acceptable. In Ancient Greece, nobody cared if an older man gave a teenage boy a handjob or stuck his dick between his thighs (but fucking him in the ass was not acceptable unless he was a slave).
You haven't given me a single record or source showing that sex within the bounds of this custom was ever stigmatized or punished, which is totally unlike, say, a society that did not tolerate homosexuality like premodern England where King James was believed to be fucking George Villiers in the ass and was still criticized for it (even mentioning it in the context of Ancient Greek myths about gods having gay sex). Since we know it existed by references in contemporary literature and art, and we know male prostitution (of slaves) was frequent and even regulated by law (at least in Rome), the logical belief is that homosexual activity was tolerated even if accounts of Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great having gay sex are exaggerated or made up.
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2017
The derailing is because everyone is trying to figure out whether or not ancient men fucked other ancient men in the ass and how well it was tolerated. Personally I don't care. Gay buttsex has existed forever. You'd have to take a time machine back to ancient Rome, Greece ect... and present your gay anus for reaming to actually know exactly what went down. It wasn't uncommon for leaders to be shamed in life and after death by their detractors. So saying Alexander the Great was having buttfuck parties or whatever could just be rumors made up to disgrace his legacy. Or he could have really been doing it. Who knows and who cares He's been dead for over 2000 years. Imagine after two millennia your legacy culminating into a bunch of people on a gossip site trying to figure out how gay you were. I think most of us are better off not being remembered at all then.
Getting back to (Gay)AssCreed, I don't play the series myself so I don't know much about it other than those awful nightmare fuel face glitches everyone was talking about years ago. But it's my understanding that both Shadows protagonists are gay, right? Or maybe it's bi because I read that there are same sex romance options for both characters. I didn't know AssCreed had romances. But I guess it bleeds into every game now anyway. You can also have platonic relationships for the AroAce types. So this is a sandbox for playing as a gay black samurai or a lesbian ninja, isn't it? That's what a lot of these games with romances amount to now. Dating and sex sims with that pesky annoying combat tacked on for some darn reason.
Looks like the Viking and Greek AssCreeds had gay sex too. Like I said, I had no idea that stuff was in this series because I don't play it. I thought you just snuck around assassinating targets and stuff. Just hope that it's programmed well enough that you don't end up screwing that random fisherman you said hello to once.
I don't think they should have went with Yasuke. The Japanese comments on videos are pretty negative. This game probably won't sell that well in Japan because they didn't use a Japanese samurai as the MC and just used a sword bearer that may or may not have been African. It's highly unlikely that there were ever any black samurai. With a huge pool of figures to choose from that actually existed as samurai they went with Yasuke for woke points and it's not going over as they hoped.
Fleece Johnson
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 11, 2019
Ubisoft could have gotten diversity points and created an original, unique game if they went this direction. Use a living legend like Fleece and hire him as the voice actor.
How do you say, "I like ya and I want ya." in Japanese?
Fleece Johnson
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 11, 2019
Being transported to an isekai where you get some booty is more important than drinking water.
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- Aug 31, 2020
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- Dec 28, 2014
The only "culture war" here is these hoaxing lunatics made up a fake black samurai and insulted the Japanese enough the government stepped in to object to this historical revisionism.
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- Dec 6, 2020
I'd go with "suki da; omae (no ketsu) ga hoshii" to make it rougher.
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- Apr 20, 2022
Thought the government said it was worth their time. At least thats what the journos write.
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2020
Yeah, I was having trouble remembering my short form grammar.
mudwogg
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- Apr 6, 2021
Yasuke was already written to be gay in Thomas Lockley's book, which also contended that the Edo period Shunga stories about Ranmaru and Nobunaga having gay sex is historical fact.
There's a segment in the book called "Sex with Nobunaga" and Lockley admits there's no existing record between Nobunaga and Yasuke's relationship dynamic, but consulted two guys for their 'headcanons'. Basically, "There's no evidence but there is evidence"
Personally, one of the reasons why Yasuke does not fit to be a main character in an Assassin's Creed game (not counting that Thomas Lockley's historical revisionism of Japan has to be used to make it work) is that being a total outsider, he has no connection to the socio-political intrigues of the setting. Him killing Japanese people would jeopardize the mission of the Jesuits in Japan.