page_title: Yasuke
section_title: Possible artworks depicting Yasuke
hierarchical_section_title: Yasuke / Possible artworks depicting Yasuke
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 『相撲遊楽図屏風』の部分。黒人らしきざんばら髪の力士と髷を結った力士との対戦。 English: Sumō yūrakuzu byōbu, Detail: A black man wrestling with Japanese
context_page_description: Yasuke was a retainer of African origin who served under the Sengoku Period Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga. In 1579 Yasuke arrived in Japan in the service of Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, Visitor of Missions in the Indies, in India. Yasuke was present during the Honnō-ji Incident, the forced suicide of Oda Nobunaga at the hands of his samurai general Akechi Mitsuhide on 21 June 1582. Yasuke is thought by some to have been the first African that Nobunaga had ever seen, but he was one of the many Africans to have come with the Portuguese to Japan during the Nanban trade.
context_section_description: There is no confirmed portrait of Yasuke drawn by a contemporary.
  Kanō Eitoku was a distinguished painter patronized by Nobunaga. Eitoku had an audience with Nobunaga when Yasuke served him. The Kanō school was famous for their Nanban byōbu, and there is at least one byōbu depicting a well-dressed black man who could be Yasuke.
  An inkstone box made by a Rinpa artist in 1590s, owned by Museu do Caramulo, depicts a black man wearing high-class clothing, who does not appear to be subordinate to the Portuguese. It is possible that this man is Yasuke in Portuguese attire.
  Sumō yūrakuzu byōbu, drawn in 1605 by an anonymous artist, depicts a dark-skinned wrestler with a Japanese man in the presence of noble samurai. This samurai is said to be Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hidetsugu. Nobunaga was famous for his fondness for sumo and held many official matches. This byōbu is owned by Sakai City Museum.
caption: Detail of Sumō yūrakuzu byōbu depicting a dark-skinned sumo wrestler, drawn in 1605.
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