Assassin's Creed Shadows Yasuke Authenticity Argument Rages On - The Facts
For two months there has been controversy over the fact Yasuke is the protagonist of the new Assassin's Creed Shadows game. With it still being spoken about online, it's time to look at the truth of the matter.
Was Yasuke a Samurai
Yes, no, maybe. Can you repeat the question? According to historical text, he did receive a name, wages, and sword from Oda Nobunaga. There are few records but they agree on these facts. Yasuke arrived in Japan alongside Alessandro Valignano, then presented and given to Oda Nobunaga. He gave him the name Yasuke, a sword, and made him the first foreign samurai. Now, this is where there can be some debate. Modernly we know samurai were soldiers. However, in the 16th century samurai was a name given to servants of the emperor, imperial family, and imperial court nobility. It was around this time that samurai was becoming known as military personnel only, and that was a sign of someone's social function, not their social class. However, it is stated in the same historical text that Yasuke was a guard for Nobunaga. There is no evidence to suggest whether he was a pawn, or a queen for Nobunaga. There is no way to know for certain if he was an actual samurai. Reminder, this also doesn't mean he wasn't.
For TheGamer, it seems it only takes one historian to completely confirm their point of view. Yet, this historian still isn't able to answer if as a samurai, Yasuke was high ranked or not. The fact he had no family name stands out to show he was not a samurai. Though, there are differing results when it comes to family names. Some research states you couldn't be a samurai without one, and others shows you could, but you were likely low ranked.
Misinformation Galore
Outside of the controversy around Yasuke, was that of Thomas Lockley. He was a Japanese university lecturer of history. He claimed to be a historian and because of this drama, ended up deleting all his social media and being fired in Japan. He wrote an entire book about Yasuke which was stated as non-fiction, and "a true story". Even more-so, he began editing the Wikipedia page for Yasuke. Many claim that the Japanese are angry about this game featuring a black man as the main character, but it simply isn't true. It is a number 1 seller there. If they are angry, they have a weird way of showing it. The claims of it being offensive to see a black man killing Japanese people, is also as weak as when a smattering of gamers complained about Resident Evil 5 in Africa. Japan doesn't care about that. The one thing they care about is this misinformation put out by Thomas Lockley, being presented as real, especially when Ubisoft used his book as source material for his game. As previously mentioned, there is very little documentation on the life of Yasuke, so where did this book come from?
Many now use Lockley as proof of it all being "DEI". However, there are many other historians who claim Yasuke as a real samurai, it was Lockley who simply went way too far with it. Despite Lockley's best efforts to distract everyone, the facts remain. No one truly knows if Yasuke was a samurai although the evidence suggests he was, he definitely did exist, and Ubisoft aren't claiming that this is an accurate retelling of his life. Ubisoft's Marc-Alexis Côté explained that Yasuke being a real figure of history without a known story is perfect because his "super-mysterious" past allows for a lot of artistic interpretation.
This is one of the bigger nothing-burgers we've seen. A black man is made a samurai and people lose their minds. Since when did gamers care so much about historical accuracy, especially when it's a game series like AC. And as a side note, why is it these people only care about Asian representation when black people are involved.
