Not necessarily - not everyone who fought was a samurai, just as not everyone who fought in medieval europe was a knight. However, I do agree that the definition is not entirely strict.
Yes, not necessarily, but that’s the thing - the people who claim he couldn’t be a samurai because he didn’t have such or such are making up requirements that didn’t exist at that time. We don’t know if he was called one or not because we don’t have records about him from the people who might have had something to say.
We do have accounts that Nobunaga was impressed with his strength, made him test fight multiple people in shows of strength, gifted him a sword (which is kind of a big deal), and that he was captured by Akechi (and then freed) when he was trying to defend Nobunaga at Honnouji. He might have been just a bodyguard, yes, but even if he was, we don’t know if Nobunaga was calling him a samurai or not, because being a samurai wasn’t a rank or a title. Maybe a bodyguard could be called a samurai depending on how important and trusted he was, and Yasuke was trusted by Nobunaga. My point is that the people dismissing the samurai title are doing so based on a wrong premise - and we have no account that could be relevant in proving it right or wrong.
He was doing actual fighting, there are records of this happening, at least one confirmed battle happened in 1582 when nobunaga was betrayed by mitsuhide. There’s no doubt about that.
Yeah, that’s the one we know about, the Honnouji attack. I mean we don’t know if he took active part in large scale battles like the Tenshou Iga war doing more than standing around Nobunaga, which is depicted in the game with him leading charge - but that can be easily counted as creative liberty. Honnouji was a surprise attack on a temple, not a battlefield, so naturally, anyone caught in it would be fighting, especially a bodyguard.
Mori Ranmaru, Oda’s other famous fuckboy bodyguard who was also at Honnouji, was a samurai because of his family and was also mostly a close bodyguard, I don’t think he’s recorded as having actively participated in any battle either. And apparently he didn’t even have any land to his name beside his family, either, but he’s still clearly called a samurai.
Yes, I agree that most people are just throwing made up nonsense at ubisoft, no doubt there.
However, the sengoku period is one of the most interesting periods of japanese history, and ubisoft could’ve EASIELY chosen an actual japanese samurai from that time, like hattori hanzo or sanado yukimura, both extremely well known throughout japanese history. Ubisoft choosing the only (recorded) black person in japan during that time just leaves a bad aftertaste in my opinion. The main character of the AC series always represented the area where he’s from - ezio for italy, connor for america, etc, you get the point.
Maybe a bodyguard could be called a samurai depending on how important and trusted he was, and Yasuke was trusted by Nobunaga
Maybe, however, personally, I don’t think so. I obviously have no solid proof, but an “outsider” earning the highest title a normal person can earn in feudal japan seems very outlandish. Public pressure would’ve probably prevented nobunaga from gifting him that title. No doubt he trusted him and received a lot of stuff, but putting him near the top of the social order … nah. I don’t think that happened. But then again, no proof.
but an “outsider” earning the highest title a normal person can earn in feudal japan seems very outlandish.
William Adams was specifically known to have been granted the title of samurai by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and that’s precisely in the period immediately at the end of the Sengoku where the title of samurai begins to change as a status (in the sense of being more restricted and codified). And there’s zero way that “public pressure” would have pushed Oda Nobunaga to change shit about something he decided to like, he’s the last guy of that era on which public pressure did anything. No one from Oda’s circle would have called him out on that.
Again, a samurai wasn’t necessarily “at the top of social order”, there are places where ashigaru, the lowest rung on the ladder, were called samurai. It’s a misconception.
As for chosing an actual Japanese person from the time - there is a second playable character who is the fictional daughter of one of those famous real people from that time and an actual ninja from Iga. You play as her for the first 10 hours or so before Yasuke even becomes playable (except for the introduction mission). This argument is ridiculous and just plain bad faith.
Yes, not necessarily, but that’s the thing - the people who claim he couldn’t be a samurai because he didn’t have such or such are making up requirements that didn’t exist at that time. We don’t know if he was called one or not because we don’t have records about him from the people who might have had something to say.
We do have accounts that Nobunaga was impressed with his strength, made him test fight multiple people in shows of strength, gifted him a sword (which is kind of a big deal), and that he was captured by Akechi (and then freed) when he was trying to defend Nobunaga at Honnouji. He might have been just a bodyguard, yes, but even if he was, we don’t know if Nobunaga was calling him a samurai or not, because being a samurai wasn’t a rank or a title. Maybe a bodyguard could be called a samurai depending on how important and trusted he was, and Yasuke was trusted by Nobunaga. My point is that the people dismissing the samurai title are doing so based on a wrong premise - and we have no account that could be relevant in proving it right or wrong.
Yeah, that’s the one we know about, the Honnouji attack. I mean we don’t know if he took active part in large scale battles like the Tenshou Iga war doing more than standing around Nobunaga, which is depicted in the game with him leading charge - but that can be easily counted as creative liberty. Honnouji was a surprise attack on a temple, not a battlefield, so naturally, anyone caught in it would be fighting, especially a bodyguard.
Mori Ranmaru, Oda’s other famous
fuckboybodyguard who was also at Honnouji, was a samurai because of his family and was also mostly a close bodyguard, I don’t think he’s recorded as having actively participated in any battle either. And apparently he didn’t even have any land to his name beside his family, either, but he’s still clearly called a samurai.Yes, I agree that most people are just throwing made up nonsense at ubisoft, no doubt there.
However, the sengoku period is one of the most interesting periods of japanese history, and ubisoft could’ve EASIELY chosen an actual japanese samurai from that time, like hattori hanzo or sanado yukimura, both extremely well known throughout japanese history. Ubisoft choosing the only (recorded) black person in japan during that time just leaves a bad aftertaste in my opinion. The main character of the AC series always represented the area where he’s from - ezio for italy, connor for america, etc, you get the point.
Maybe, however, personally, I don’t think so. I obviously have no solid proof, but an “outsider” earning the highest title a normal person can earn in feudal japan seems very outlandish. Public pressure would’ve probably prevented nobunaga from gifting him that title. No doubt he trusted him and received a lot of stuff, but putting him near the top of the social order … nah. I don’t think that happened. But then again, no proof.
William Adams was specifically known to have been granted the title of samurai by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and that’s precisely in the period immediately at the end of the Sengoku where the title of samurai begins to change as a status (in the sense of being more restricted and codified). And there’s zero way that “public pressure” would have pushed Oda Nobunaga to change shit about something he decided to like, he’s the last guy of that era on which public pressure did anything. No one from Oda’s circle would have called him out on that.
Again, a samurai wasn’t necessarily “at the top of social order”, there are places where ashigaru, the lowest rung on the ladder, were called samurai. It’s a misconception.
As for chosing an actual Japanese person from the time - there is a second playable character who is the fictional daughter of one of those famous real people from that time and an actual ninja from Iga. You play as her for the first 10 hours or so before Yasuke even becomes playable (except for the introduction mission). This argument is ridiculous and just plain bad faith.