Part of Clarke Illmatical’s Forgotten Fury series this is a chronicle of the upcoming and existing Yasuke / Black Samurai projects (movies, books, comic books, animated series, video games, etc.) It also discusses the influence of samurai culture on American film, Black martial artists and pop culture.
Written by Illmatical | @Masternever
Within the last decade, the story of Yasuke, the first foreign samurai, has become popular in Japan and gained recognition worldwide. This includes a number of books, comics, and movies about the African warrior.
Before Yasuke was on the scene, in America, there has been a fascination with samurai culture. It was Japanese samurai films of the 60s, that birthed one of America’s greatest myths, gunslingers and fighters.
Yasuke: The First Foreign Samurai
Here is what is known about Yasuke (pronounced Yas-kay). He came to Japan in 1579 while working as a servant/guard for a high ranking Jesuit named Alessandro Valignano. While in Japan, he was noticed by one of the most integral figures in feudal Japan, Oda Nobunaga. There is a debate about why, but for various reasons,
How Samurai Cinema Created Gunslingers, Jedi, and Black Belts
Believe it or not, your favorite Clint Eastwood western, the one with him strutting into town all on his own, it was influenced by Japanese samurai films, by the Shogun of Cinema: Akira Kurosawa. Don’t take my word for it, I leaned the on the expertise of martial arts film expert Ric Meyers, asking if samurai films of the 60s, possibly influenced Westerns. He responded slaying and saying
“Samurai films didn’t “possibly” influence Spaghetti Westerns: they basically created them. Although there were Italian-made “American”
-Ric Meyers, Films of Fury
Westerns before 1964, the movie that launched/exploded the international interest and success of what non-Italians somewhat derogatorily termed “Spaghetti Westerns” was sparked by A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood.
It’s director Sergio Leone who has repeatedly made it clear that the movie was based on, a remake of, and an homage to Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1961 samurai (aka Chanbara, translated as “sword-fighting”) film Yojimbo.
The two genres, at their most kinetic, play well together. The best of both are artistic interpretations of violent social upheaval, exemplified by a lone wolf anti-hero setting things “right” via their skill with a weapon (be it a sword or six-shooter). In Western terms, it was the “winning” of the West by greed, and, in eastern terms, it was the militaristic megalomania of the samurai class…”
Beyond westerns, Kurosawa’s films would play a huge role in creating an American myth. A USC film student’s empire of dreams began with two characters in the film Hidden Fortress. Michael Kaminski’s book THE SECRET HISTORY OF STAR WARS explains how George Lucas was influenced by samurai cinema saying “Aside from Flash Gordon, the other main influence, at least for Lucas’ initial conception of Star Wars, is the Japanese samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, but in particular 1958’s The Hidden Fortress. Lucas discovered Kurosawa at the recommendation of John Milius while attending film school and quickly fell in love with Kurosawa’s films…Kurosawa frequently depicted contemporary Japan, he is best known for his “jidai geki,” or period films, portraying the stoic samurai warriors of Japan’s past…
Lucas has admitted to borrowing the two bickering peasants from whose perspective the story is told and turning them into R2-D2 and C-3P0—but in fact, not only were the droids not robots but human, literal adaptations of the bickering peasants in his initial treatment, Lucas “borrowed” nearly all of The Hidden Fortress for the first treatment, so much that he even contemplated purchasing the rights to the film. He flat-out remade it.”
Beyond the fact that Vader’s headgear is based on a samurai helmet, George Lucas originally wanted famous Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune to play the role of one of Star Wars’ greatest heroes. In Kaminski’s book, Lucas is quoted as saying “ This was actually when I was looking for Ben Kenobi…I was going to use Toshiro Mifune; we even made a preliminary inquiry. If I’d gotten Mifune, I would’ve also used a Japanese princess, and then I would have probably cast a black Han Solo. At the same time, I was investigating Alec Guinness.”
Beyond a galaxy far away, beyond the lone gunman with unlimited bullets, the samurai films played a role in influencing many modern day
American martial arts legend and pioneer Karriem
I liked the weaponry, I liked the story of Miyamoto Musashi and I admired that. I took that under my wing and developed myself… He wanted to be the best in the world. He traveled, ventured out on his own, He was self-taught. He wanted to move out and become a great samurai. He was challenging people, and that is what I was doing in the 60s. I was challenging people. I was fed up with them talking about what I didn’t create… In your life, you always need someone to help you make the next step. I was stationary in karate, but when I saw that picture, it reminded me of my life.”
The Black Samurai Experience
Beyond Chanbara, Black folk have had an almost magnetic attraction to the sword for years. Here’s a look at some Black samurai who were slashing up the scene before Yasuke was even a dream.
Jim Kelly – Black Samurai (Film 1976)
You can claim blacksploitation, or James Bond rip off, but Kelly was the Black James Bond, before anyone ever considered Idris Elba.
Ghost Dog – The Way of The Samurai (Film 1999)
Modern-day hood ronin who embodied the bushido code starring Forest Whitaker.
Afro Samurai (Graphic Novel 1998, TV 2007, Video Game 2009)
Manga’s favorite samurai wasn’t influenced by Yasuke. During an interview, Takashi Okazaki explained his references saying “I first started drawing Afro-Samurai when I was student… I just started off doing some doodling of an African American man just playing around with it, putting on some headbands and kimono, to eventually, develop this character Afro Samurai in the end… the inspiration behind Afro Samurai, came from different elements that I really liked from when I was young, was hip-hop and soul music, and I use to watch reruns of Soul Train from the 70s and that was really a great experience for me as well, because that’s when I got to see Afro Hair as something that’s really cool…”
Marc Olden’s Black Samurai (Novel 1974)
This successful fiction book series was supposed to be a STARZ TV series starring the rapper Common. In the wake of the new Yasuke movies, expect to see this series come into fruition.
Galtow (Comic book 2004)
Robert Garret’s samurai comic book is set in a future dystopian America, where warrior clans are social classes. Men and women have embraced the codes of the ninja, samurai, and yakuza.
Blood and Bone (Film 2009)
An underrated Michael Jai White’s flick features a somewhat epic sword battle at the end of the film.
The Animatrix Dojo Scene (Short Film 2003)
One of the best samurai sword fights — EVER!
Michonne: The Walking Dead (TV 2010)
One stroke, one kill.
Blade (Comic books 1973, Film 1998)
Beyond starting the comic book movie shit, Blade had some epic sword fighting scenes, apparently, Snipes, nor Marvel took Blade’s creative advice when creating the rest of the franchise “Some motherfucker’s always trying to ice skate uphill.”
The Rise of Yasuke: Games, Movies and Books
Video Games
Nioh(2017)
The game created by TEAM NINJA brings Yasuke into the story and although he is made a villain, and they horribly distort his story, it’s an example of how popular Yasuke is going to become. Still waiting on someone to have the courage to create a game that tells Yasuke’s entire journey.
Books
Kuro-suke
Published in 1968, written by Yoshio Kurusu, is an illustrated Japanese book which won the Japanese Association of Writers for Children Prize in 1969.
Yasuke: The Black Samurai by Serge Bile (2017)
AKA Yasuke Le Samourai Noir is a french novel by French-Ivorian journalist Serge Bilé
African Samurai by Thomas Lockley & Geoffrey Girard (2019)
Professor Thomas Lockley has been one of the main figures in igniting interest in Yasuke. He previously published an academic paper on Yasuke, followed by his 2017 book, YASUKE IN SEARCH OF THE AFRICAN SAMURAI, which was published in Japan. This year, his fiction book AFRICAN SAMURAI, which is co-written by Geoffrey Girard is the first time a book on Yasuke has been written in English.
Check out our interview the author Thomas Lockley as well as a review of the book. *April 30th, 2019 Update:* AFRICAN SAMURAI novel is now available on Amazon
Comic Books
Yasuke: The Black Samurai (2019)
An art project led Terrence X to Yasuke’s story. “I had some familiarity of Black people existing in Japan even prior to Yasuke… This was five years ago and there was only a paragraph on Wikipedia about him. That was the only thing on the internet… My story picks up where the historical account ends. There’s so little history… Most people believe that he wasn’t killed. After the battle that ended Oda Nobunaga’s life, he somewhere, but nobody knows where he went… My account Yasuke becomes a Ronin, a masterless samurai… He goes from place to place as a sword for hire…”
What also makes Terrence’s comic special is a female character named Olu, who teams up with Yasuke and joins him on his adventures.
Yasuke: Birth of a Samurai
Deranta Avaloy’s comic and animated series focuses on the samurai training given to Yasuke by Lord Nobunaga.
“Yasuke: Birth of A Samurai was created out of the desire to fill a gap that has been long ignored in the “superhero genre”. The need for a hero of color that is not a sidekick, a joke or a character that is mandated by those that can’t relate to the African American culture. The biggest thing we want to accomplish is to provide a character that the children can look up to, read the stories, watch the cartoons and be able to relate to the main characters and know that they are able to see reflections of themselves and feel a sense of pride.”
Deranta Avaloy
YASUKE MOVIES
Yasuke: The Real Afro Samurai
An explosive documentary by successful Japan-based American director Deborah Desnoo and Floyd Webb: https://yasuke-san.com/
Yasuke: The Sword of the Soul
A film based on the story of Yasuke and his journey by Al Yisrael and martial artists turned filmmaker Robert Parham. For more on this project check out: Yasuke The Soul of Sword
Blood of Yasuke
This project is being written by Gregory Wilden, who wrote Highlander. The project was reported as titled BLACK SAMURAI, but Wilden’s IMDB page indicates this new title.
**May 1, 2019 UPDATE: Chadwick Boseman will play Yasuke in Blood of Yasuke.
**October 2019 UPDATE: the IMDB page now shows the title as just “Yasuke”
Yasuke: Descendants
A fantasy based story directed by Calvert David Miles, that involves the descendants of the Yasuke and the powers of a mystical sword. Check out director Miles on the IG: @calvertdavidmiles
Yasuke (animated series/Netflix)
This project looks promising. Directed by LeSean Thomas, who has worked on Boondocks and Black Dynamite, featuring voice narration by Lakeith Stanfield and music production by Flying Lotus.
Yasuke’s Story: So Much Potential
There are limitless possibilities with Yasuke’s story. Since he’s a historical character, who isn’t necessarily owned by anyone, expect to see a new film released every few years. Kind of like Batman — but better, because this superhero is real.
Eventually, someone will get it just right. In the interim, with all of the Yasuke projects on the horizon, this is a good time to enjoy the Black samurai wave.
~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.
To learn more about
- Web: Yasuke: The Black Samurai
- Twitter: @yasukesamurai1
- Instagram: @yasukeblacksamurai
- Facebook: Yasuke The Black Samurai
——————————————–
TheLastDragonTribute.com is a blog dedicated to preserving the joy of Berry Gordy’s 1985 Motown meets Kung Fu cult classic The Last Dragon. We also delve into all things Bruce Lee, Martial Arts and enjoy reminiscing about 70′s,80′s & 90′s pop culture. Follow us from the links below for your daily dose of the Glow!
| @TheLastGlow Fan Tribute to The Last Dragon www.thelastdragontribute.com |
Buy Samurai Influenced T-Shirts, Art & Merchandise by Independent Artist
This site contains some affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
