"Yasuke: The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai" by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard

 I started this book for a book club, but doesn't look like the meeting will eventually be happening so I guess I read this for nothing. Anyways, this book was largely kind of odd to read in that I'm unsure what it was trying to be. I'm not sure whether the author wanted this to be non-fiction or historical fiction. The narration jumps around in time and supplies details that may or may not be historically accurate such as what different characters are thinking or saying. I have no doubt that this is all based on history but the result is that it reads with super flowery language and often enters the realm of speculation.

This is a book about Yasuke, a Black man who came to Japan in the sixteenth century with the Jesuits with the goal of being a bodyguard for individuals who are trying to spread Christianity. He then is gifted to a Japanese warlord and stays by his side for many years, and becomes a samurai under his service. When the warlord is overthrown and betrayed by one of his allies, Yasuke disappears from history.

The end of the book gets into adaptations of Yasuke's story and how he's influenced characters and stories. He's made a few appearances in anime which is really cool since there aren't many Black characters in general in anime. And he's appeared in video games. I think part of the reason why this book was suggested is that there's a Netflix series coming out about him soon! And that was really cool to read about.

Plus there's an Author's Note at the end that talks about how cool this story is in that here's a Black man that manages to travel across the world, speak multiple languages, and be bestowed the highest honor from another culture. It's a really cool way of looking at history and not focusing on exclusively white men. And that makes this part of history really cool to learn about!

Having said that though, I think the author is also a Black man, but a lot of the time Yasuke is described as being really "exotic" and wild. Part of that doesn't really sit right with me since many POC are called that in modern times to fetishize them. Maybe a clearer distinction between how Yasuke is being described and how people of the time described him and would have seen him could have helped. 

So this was a neat book to read and learn about, but the overall reading experience was pretty average. I'm happy that this story is being amplified, but in terms of its value as a book, I think you could get the same info from a Wikipedia article.