Yasuke

Sxint Chris

2020

This album by Sxint Chris tells the tale of Yasuke, a man of African origin who served as a kashin (retainer) under the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga. There’s a lot of East Asian influence in the production, and samples of samurai swords clanging.

In 1579, an African man now known by the name of Yasuke arrived in Japan. Much about him remains a mystery: it’s unconfirmed which country in Africa he hailed from, and there is no verifiable record of his life after 1582. But Yasuke was a real-life Black samurai who served under one of the most important feudal lords in Japanese history and a unifier of the country.