African Samurai, written by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard is the first English book on Yasuke, the first foreign samurai to serve in Japan. During this interview, Lockley discusses his motivations for the book, which creatively introduces readers to Yasuke’s story and the world of feudal Japan.
Written by Clarke Illmatical | @Masternever
Several years ago, Thomas Lockley, a professor at Nihon University in Japan, stumbled onto the intriguing story of Yasuke, an African who became the first foreign born samurai.
Lockley’s curiosity would result in a Japanese book on Yasuke, and two years later, after teaming up with fiction writer Geoffrey Girard he’s completed the first English book, entitled AFRICAN SAMURAI: THE TRUE STORY OF YASUKE, A LEGENDARY BLACK WARRIOR IN FEUDAL JAPAN.
The 450 page book introduces readers to Yasuke’s story, a summary of his upbringing in Africa, his travels in India, and focuses on several years in Japan where he arrived as a servant and was promoted to samurai by one of the most notable figures in the country’s history.
During an interview, Lockley talks about his motivations for the book, Yasuke’s
African Samurai Author Thomas Lockley Interview
Can you tell us about your background?
“I’ve been in Japan on and off for 20 years. I came here originally in 2000 as a teacher. I got married and lived in the UK for a bit but decided that Japan was where we wanted to be. That was ten years ago… I am a professor, associate professor, a language teacher.”
How did you get involved with Yasuke? How did that journey take place?
“The strange thing is, I’m not exactly sure how that happened. It was natural. It flowed from life. I like history, that’s my job, in particular, the character of Yasuke himself.
I remember when it was, it was just over ten years ago, just over eleven years ago I was researching the life of William Adams. He was another foreign-born samurai, on Wikipedia, when it says ‘You may also be interested in or related links’ there was this African Samurai, Yasuke or something. I clicked on it. It’s been going since then. That was probably ten years ago.”
I was developing lessons at the time, concentrating on the international history of Japan which is what I teach, developing ideas which make students feel more part of the world, part of the global culture, instead of just feeling insular.
I think it’s good for everybody to feel cross border relationships, cross international feelings, of connection with other people, places. The Yasuke story, in particular, is just so mind-boggling. It’s just so much beyond everything that is told.”
In the book, you suggest that Yasuke’s story is just beginning. What makes you say that?
“It must be the story of millions. However, those millions, are the millions that don’t get written about. Those millions are the millions that slip between cracks or somehow, where not written about because they didn’t seem to be important at the time. Yasuke is one who did catch the note of various people. About 6 or 7 people in total, and therefore, we have something remaining of his life, which is representative of millions of others.
I just don’t mean Africans. I mean, from all over the world. The sailors from Japan, China, Europe, who we know little about those individuals… Occasionally we have a pay record or something like that, or so and so died at sea on this so and so date. We have nothing more than that and Yasuke is one who somehow through his personal talents, and his looks — because he’s big and strong, became something else and I think he’s representative of a world of people that we don’t ever hear about.
His story is just beginning, that means that his character and personality are developing in our world right now as a relevant person. The movies, the stories that are being written about him, made about him, all these things are now able to reach a wider audience, who can be inspired, through him being representative of millions of normal people, who have all descended part from a time, a tiny fraction of the world… It’s really inspiring to have his story as representative of the 99 percent.”
I know that in 1968, there was a book written about him. How is Yasuke viewed in Japan?
“He’s sort of a hero, to be honest with you. I guess I found most of this after I wrote the book in Japanese, or I wrote the book and it was translated into Japanese. His story is quite widely known… Not the details but the fact of his existence is quite widely known. There are all sort of legends and things about him. As soon as that book was written — it wasn’t a best seller or anything like that, but people kept talking to me about it all of the time. People I’ve never talk to before, at University ‘Oh Yasuke, we know about him!’
It became more clear to me, he actually seems a bit of a hero over here. Off the back of that book. All sorts of things have happened — the English book as well. Within Japan, he’s been on several TV programs since then, for example, he’s featured on several TV programs, at least three to my knowledge and possibly a lot more that I haven’t even seen. The Japanese love history and their programs, on terrestrial TV let alone satellite — God knows how many he’s appeared in as a bit character now, that he didn’t before.”
You published the Japanese book in 2017. When did you start writing that?
“The whole project of Yasuke now has been going for nine years. I started writing it the month before my daughter was born and she is about to be nine. Both books are part of the same project, part of the same research. The Japanese book is essentially an academic book. It’s mean to put all the academic possibilities of his life to the test as detective work and the English book is the results of that test.
If you were to read the Japanese book, I talk about 4 or 5 different places in Africa, he could have come from depending on the evidence that we have. In the English book… I decide South Sudan because I think that is the most likely. I don’t go into the whys and hows of it, I just decide. If you look in the notes in the back, you will see all of those notes, in English as well…
The paper was written in 2016, that was just a 10,000 word academic paper about his life. That was the first academic work on Yasuke’s life. Then, I realized the book could be written because there was so much more to be written, and my word limit was up. I thought, now is the time to take this further and write the book. I reached out to publishers and agents to do that. They were happy to facilitate the project.”
One thing in particular that I liked about the book, it lacked an arrogant tone, it’s almost like you were inviting the reader to take part in this journey and in the future — write the next Yasuke book. How did you pull Girard in?
“Thanks, I appreciate that. When we were working out the project, The publishing company and agencies suggested that it would be a good idea to get a writer (Girard) who has a track history — that’s his 13th book. He has a track history of writing and can help guide as a co-author and super editor…
I like him a lot and we got on well. He liked me. We’re still good friends. He came to Japan. We walked around all of the sites talking about how we’d make the book. The book is a result of that. I think it was a great thing…
I think we took on a way of keeping it simple. Keep it real and keep it not, inaccessible. If you look at it from a teacher’s point of view, you want your students or your reader to enjoy what you’re teaching, or what you’re reading. We looked at it that way. As opposed to a talking down kind of way. I think that’s what you were getting at. I’m glad that we managed that — if you felt that, that’s a success.
You have, these two overwhelming personalities, Valignano, and Nobunaga. If Valignano was alive today, who would he be in the world? What would his title be?
“The title would be the same. It still exists. The current pope is a Jesuit… He can send a visitor to India or to Japan whenever he wants, In those days because of logistics and because it was so difficult to get there, and [Alessandro] Valignano, never returned to Europe. In those days, it was a different thing. Now you just get on a plane. and go. In those days, it was a very different situation. The same principles exist within the Jesuits, in the Catholic church today.
In the book, you mentioned that Valignano never mentioned Yasuke in his writing. I reached out to a professor who helped Scorsese with the film SILENCE. He suggested that Valignano, never mentioned the name ‘Yasuke,’ but could have referred to him by another name.
“That’s a good point, he doesn’t mention any bodyguard, any servants, any underlings really. He does write a lot about his fellow Jesuits, about their good points and their bad points. In his will, he frees two Japanese slaves that he owns. But, I only found out about that after the book and gone to press.
The project is still ongoing. You can never finish a project like this. There’s always going to be something more that crops up. You have to draw a line somewhere and that line has been drawn. It’s already 450 pages, I don’t want it any more than that.
The reason why he doesn’t mention Yasuke as far as I am concerned is that he was very much a man of the upper class… Whatever ethnicity they were, if you’re a king or noble in Japan, you’re a king or noble in Europe, and we see when European nobles come to Japan, when Japanese nobles come to Europe, they were treated with utmost dignity and respect. The Japanese slaves or European slaves or indentured people, they are totally ignored by both the ruling class in Japan and by the ruling class in Europe. This is a standard procedure. Apart from Yasuke which is why he’s representative of millions.”
In the book, you also mentioned that Yasuke also served some very important people. You don’t feel that [Oda] Nobunaga questioned him and said ‘Yasuke’s an experienced warrior. I think he’s knowledgeable about different cultures. He was a warrior servant in other countries, I can make him a warrior servant for me!’
Absolutely. It would have been a smooth fit. Valignano was one of the most important people in the Asian-European world, certainly, Nobunaga was the most important person in the Japanese world, It’s highly likely also that Yasuke served important people in India.
That one phrase, I’ve taken out of the final volume, you won’t find that in the final print version, “Some important people in the world” is what I think I’ve changed it to. He probably served one other important person in India. That particular phrase is probably going over the point. We don’t know who that might have been. If you look through the story I create for the India part of it, I think you can find various people.”
In your book, you mentioned that Africans or dark-skinned Indians had been in Japan before Yasuke’s arrival. Somebody would have mentioned them or their presence would have known to Nobunaga.
“Not necessarily. This is the 16th century. The outside of Japan, where the Europeans and the Africans, and the Indians landed in Kuri-cho facing China. That’s a long way from Kyoto where Nobunaga was. That’s a 12 to 14 day journey.
Think about a 14 day journey for you now? You could get around the world several times. In those days it took 12 – 14 days to get to Kyoto. There may have been rumors and speculation, but there hadn’t up to that point been any Black person in Kyoto.
You have to think of Japan, not as one nation in those days, it was a nation of many different states and warring states at that. Communications were not so good. Nobunaga never went to those parts of the country although he would have had spies. Those spies would not have been necessarily worried about a few strange looking people… They would have been more worried about the strength of the warlords around and the balance of power in that region. It would not have been a particularly important thing.
However when you actually see the reality of some someone like Yasuke or Valignano, the reality of the difference of their look, then that becomes real and that becomes concrete and that is when the capital region of the country, Kyoto, becomes fascinated.
They already became fascinated by Jesuits in that area for about 15 years. The first Jesuits were visited by thousands and thousands of people in Kyoto. Because they were strange as well. They were totally strange. They were successful in converting some people in that region, not as successful as they were in other regions.
It was their looks and their differences that were interesting to the Japanese. Yasuke is a continuation of that. He’s more thrilling to them than anything else and I think that’s possible because of is godlike, appearance. To them, he was very black. If you look at the Southern Sudanese, they are really black and that would be like the statues you see the temples.
If you go to a Japanese temple for example, and you see the statues of people… They are ebony black as suppose to a brown color. That kind of image he resonated with…
Most of these people have barely been educated at this time. Literacy was reasonably low. Visual, queues are what turned people on as opposed to written queues that we have today.”
You mentioned that you have another book on the way. Is it a sequel?
“A writer is always writing. Writers continue to write. Who knows what will happen. It certainly won’t be a year, more likely two or three years, possibly more. If you think, Yasuke took 9 years, to research and write, even if this one is a little bit quicker… One of these projects takes at least 5 years to do properly. Probably in the second year of that project right now… I won’t say more than it is a related subject.”
Hollywood producer reads your book. Who plays Yasuke, Nobunaga and Valignano?
“I can’t answer. The reason why I’m not up to date with movie stuff. If we were going to talk the central figure, he needs to be 25, 26 years old. He needs to be big… I leave that stuff to the Hollywood people.”
Valignano, in all of your research about him, did he ever mention his time in India?
He went back to India for a while after this [Japan]. Backward and forwards all of the time. I think he left in 74, got to India 3 years later. He had been to Mozambique first, looking around there. He was two or three years in India than nine months in Macau and then he got to Japan…
Then he was in Japan two and a half years, then he went back to Macau, and back to India. He was expecting to go back to Europe but found new orders for him in India to stay there and become the superior rather than the visitor. He came back to Japan in 1591, for another few years.
This time, he had ambassador credentials from the king of Portugal. So he’s considered the first official ambassador… He was in Japan 3 times and he died in Macau in 1603. He wrote thousands of book and letters. We don’t know where most of them are. I’ve read what I can and I’m struggling to take all of this stuff in. There’s just so much.”
In your research, were you able to find out why Valignano went to prison?
“It was obviously covered up. I suspect it was some sort of lover tiff. He struck her with a sword which is particularly nasty. Cause it would have left a massive gash on her. Not a good thing to do to anybody, particularly not a young lady. He served his time in prison, I suspect that his family got him out. He was a high-level aristocrat.”
You touched on several points while introducing this great story. You touch on Japanese slavery which isn’t often discussed. Was Japanese slavery something you knew about prior to researching Yasuke’s story?
“Nine years ago, I didn’t, but it was something that came up within the realm of this research project. I’ve probably known about it for seven years now. I know a lot more about it now, for the simple reason, that my friend just published a book on it (THE PORTUGUESE SLAVE TRADE IN EARLY MODERN JAPAN)… His name is Lucio De Sousa. I highly recommend getting a hold of it or asking the library to buy it. So that you can get a hold of it.”
THE CHRONICLE OF LORD NOBUNAGA is an accurate, yet dry read. Any well written books on him? Like what you’ve done with Yasuke’s story?
“There is nothing in English like that. There are various books on him, but they’re all dry, very academic. There is one called JAPONIUS TYRANNUS, by Lamers. He’s one of the guys who did the translation of the chronicles. There is nothing else in English at all. If you want to write a book then, that’s the book to write. The world is crying out for that kind of book… There’s nothing down to earth about him in English.”
On one hand, you suggest that he’s (Nobunaga) a military genius. Then, he makes a huge mistake by sending all of his generals away, making himself vulnerable. Was his demise arrogance?
“No one could have predicted that. Akechi was one of his oldest generals, most trusted fellows and had never let him down before. He was the one, who you would reach out to, if you needed something done, Akechi would do it. Nobody could have predicted that was going to happen. It’s like, Cohen and Trump. Cohen said he’d take a bullet for Trump, and now he’s squealing like anything. It’s a different world, but it’s comparable to that. Nobody could have predicted this would happen.
Nobunaga was in absolute control of that area. He pacified it to hell. He killed everybody he didn’t like or didn’t like him. He’d gone beyond the call of duty on that and Akechi, had done most of that killing for him. Nobody could have predicted it. I don’t think that was an error on his part, however, one of his errors, was that he didn’t co-opt people, he always insisted on just annihilating his enemies.
Hideyoshi who came after him, co-opted people, he bought them, he gave them honors. Nobunaga just had to kill everybody before he could take the land. Hideyoshi dominated the whole country by making people his allies. Making his old enemies into his allies and that was a far more successful policy. Nobunaga would take a long time to unify, going at that rate. Hideyoshi did it in three years.
Ieyasu was serving Nobunaga while Yasuke was made samurai. He would have known about Yasuke. Is it possible that this influenced Adams promotion in the future?
“No question… If you think about it, Adams was employed as a useful person who had knowledge of the outside world, he didn’t have ties with the Jesuits. He explicitly did not. Yasuke was tight with the Jesuits, but he was not a Jesuit. Therefore, that was in the same respect… Yasuke could be taken as his own man as no Jesuit could ever did.
Adams was the same. Adams was a single Protestant in a country where the only Christians were Catholics. He was quite clearly the enemy of all of the other Europeans and Japanese Catholics. Togugawa [Ieyasu] used him because he knew he’d get better advice, more, honest advice from Adams, than he would an established, power within the country. Adams had no power. He was dependent on Ieyasu for everything.”
In the book, you humanized the samurai and talked about issues that are not often discussed. For instance, homosexual relationships, I didn’t know about that, there was actually a book on this subject, and a film. In addition, not all samurai committed seppuku. In America, we have these notions that all the samurai were noble and immediately committed seppuku when defeated. Based on what I read in your book, not all of them wanted to commit seppuku.
“I don’t use the word ‘commit,’ because that suggests it’s a crime. ‘Commit’ is a Christian word used for suicide, suggesting a criminal act. I use the word ‘perform’ in that book. In almost all situations, it’s done because the person is going to die anyway. The person is going to die anyway. It’s a way of saving your name. Of going out in the moment, or going down in history as a great person…
One of Nobunaga’s advisors when he was a young man, performed seppuku to draw attention to the fact that Nobunaga was off the rails and needed to take life seriously. That man would not have died anyway, but he did it to shock his lord… He saw it as his duty. There is that aspect, to give your life for your lord, for your people, however, the grim fact is, it’s a nasty thing to have to do to yourself.
Not a lot of people actually want to do that, when it comes down to it. If you look at the battlefield records, you’ll see often it’s the high ranking people that would have to die anyway. They’d have their heads chopped off anyway. They might as well get it over with quickly. Their names would go down honorably in history.
A lot of the rank and file did, but others disappeared off into the mountains and became bandits. Others ran back home, to remote regions and just carried on with their lives. Others, in this case, the Christians fled abroad. They fled to Manilla in the Philippines because it was a Spanish colony and they were welcome. They fled to Macau because they were welcome there by the Portuguese as Catholics. And many of them were fled to Thailand, the Thai people were very tolerant of Christianity. The Thai king liked the Japanese because they were good soldiers and he employed them in his army.
… I have no idea, nobody else does, what percentage of defeated warriors did commit seppuku. I’d dare say it’s 10 – 20, maybe in the 30 percent. That still leaves a vast majority that didn’t.”
Any plans to do any Yasuke comics, fiction work or movies?
I don’t but I know there are people out there that do and they are doing it right now. There’s at least one anime movie being made, if you look up the website Yasuke-san.com you’ll find the details of a movie being made by a guy called Floyd Webb and Deborah DeSnoo.
There’s a movie being made by the director of Highlander. If you look up, ‘Yasuke Movie,’ you’ll find the details. It was announced about a year ago.
Who should read your book?
“I want that book to be read by people who know nothing about Japan, that know nothing about Africa, that know nothing about China, about the world.
They never heard of Japanese slaves, Chinese pirates. This is supposed to be an easy introduction to that world, that anybody on the street can read… The story is romantic in the fact that it reaches out to people and pulls their heartstrings.
It has adventure, it’s got violence, It’s got love, it’s got all sorts of things. I wrote it because we really need to know more about the rest of the world. If you’re talking from an American perspective or a European perspective, especially from an Anglo Saxon perspective… The more I talk to people, I have just been in Britain for six months now, they know so little about the world outside of their own experience… The Japanese and the Chinese are way better at this.
I would hope that this book will introduce, to the normal person on the street, something, even a tiny tiny bit, about a different world that they should know about.”
“Yasuke The True Story of the Legendary African Samurai”
African Samurai Book Review
Personally, as someone who had a vague understanding of samurai culture beyond a few films, I found AFRICAN SAMURAI to be an excellent introduction to Yasuke’s story, and some notable figures in feudal Japan.
In the areas of the book where Lockley and Girard take liberties with Yasuke’s story, based on factual data, it’s done so without insulting your intelligence. The fictional liberties are minimal, thus encouraging the reader to make their own assumptions.
There are plenty of references, allowing readers to begin their own research. As of right now, AFRICAN SAMURAI is the Yasuke bible, and beyond the normal feudal Japan church sermons, these scriptures are exciting. Count on this book, to create a number of Yasuke fans and Japanese history majors.
~Illmatical 無敵將軍
Clarke Illmatical (@masternever) is a writer from Queens, NY. He is the creator of the martial arts fantasy story, MASTERNEVER AND THE FLOW OF DEATH.
His writing has appeared in The Amsterdam News, The Norwood News, Harlem
Community News, and Queens Politics in New York City. In Asia, his work has
been featured in The South China Morning Post, China Global Daily, TimeOut
Hong Kong, The Phnom Penh Post, and E-China Cities.
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