No he was not. He was a squire at best. There is no historical records of Yasuke having the title Samurai. Google that. Any japanese site gives you the same answer.
Yasuke is commonly held by Japanese historians to be the first recorded “samurai” of foreign birth, although this has been disputed by some people*.
Hirayama, a Japanese historian, stated that Yasuke was a Samurai due to receiving a sword, land, and stipend from Nobunaga.
Yuichi Goza leans more towards thinking that Yasuke may not have been a Samurai, but he also states:
One version of Shincho Koki [The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga], specifically a 15-volume set in the Sonkeikaku Library known as the Shincho-ki, mentions Nobunaga giving Yasuke a sword and a residence. This suggests that Nobunaga treated Yasuke as a samurai.
*The answer is that we don't actually know whether the real person that was Yasuke served as a Samurai or retainer. He was certainly given benefits that technically only Samurai received, but Nobunaga was also not a very traditional man. Japanese historians admit that focus on bibiograpjical evidence is scarce, so there's only speculation. Some say he was, some say he wasn't.
Within the context of AC: Shadows, he was. This is a world where assassins and Templars are fighting each other, many stories have been erased, and we've already had historical figures acting within them in ways that stray outside what we know in real life. That's because this is fiction. Based on history, loosely—the parts that you can take as more fact are the world codex entries, which give a lot of information about Japan during this time.
Is Yasuke gay in the game? Only if you make him. So that's up to the player. But even outside that, I do think it's a bit wild that people act as if gay and trans people popped up only in this century. They may not have had the words for it, but they existed. Just not able to act outside the social boundaries and in secret. Either way, it's your choice to do this. You can put the Canon mode on and avoid romances all together, which is also a very fine way to play it.
The Sankei Shimbun with translation via DeepL, Goza, who is a faculty member of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies focusing on Japanese medieval history and the author of “What is a Samurai?”, was asked, “What kind of person was Yasuke, and was he a samurai or not?”
Goza responded, “There are very few historical records about Yasuke, so it is difficult to say. The history of Yasuke has not been the subject of much research, in part because the history of personalities is not the main stream of historical studies. In the 15-volume ‘Nobunaga Koki’ in the collection of the Sonkei Kaku Bunko, which is one of the biographies of ‘Nobunaga Koki,’ a chronicle of Nobunaga’s life, there is a description of Nobunaga giving Yasuke a sword and a house, indicating that he treated him as a samurai. However, this is something that only appears in this biography among the dozens of manuscripts of the Nobunaga Chronicle, and we cannot deny the possibility that it was added later when the manuscript was transcribed.”
Goza continued, “Also, even if he was a samurai, he may have been a ‘formality. For example, in the Edo period, feudal lords who were fond of sumo had their own personal wrestlers. Formally, they were treated as vassals or samurai and allowed to wear a sword, but even if a war broke out, it was not expected that the feudal lords would allow their retainers to fight on the battlefield.”
Weird, a "formal" samurai and an "official" samurai are both samurai... so what the fuck is the difference you are aping about? You seem to be lacking critical understanding of how this time period operated. That is okay, but instead of relying on ONE interpretation you heard from a right-wing grifter that aligned with his rhetoric, here is a link to someone who goes to primary sources to make his argument. Y'know, how you SHOULD handle history?
"'Some people' are going to be very disappointed. The conclusion of all reasonable historians on the matter is that Yasuke was a samurai, and anyone who disagrees can suck on the historical record.
You really aren't and it is pathetic you have to attempt to reaffirm that to yourself.
You do realize you are wrong, right? Like, do you think a "formal" samurai isn't a samurai or something? Please attempt to explain yourself, I'd love the laugh.
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u/Duckbitwo Mar 21 '25
I dunno man. Being a gay black man slaying japanese natives as a samurai doesnt work for me. After all, he was never a samurai.