Where's The Black Samurai?

[Goodyear]

So apparently, Oda Nobunaga had an advisor and retainer that was a black man and former Portuguese slave, whom Nobunaga made a samurai. Benkei's Blades and Hanzo's Shadows are cool and all, but I'd like to see Yasuke's Black Samurai, that'd be sick. Just a bunch of former African slaves spreading Christianity across Japan.

[Mr. Nice]

Sorry, my poe-detector is frazzled.

[Duck Twacy]

Originally posted by DJ Wise Pariah:

So apparently, Oda Nobunaga had an advisor and retainer that was a black man and former Portuguese slave, whom Nobunaga made a samurai. Benkei's Blades and Hanzo's Shadows are cool and all, but I'd like to see Yasuke's Black Samurai, that'd be sick. Just a bunch of former African slaves spreading Christianity across Japan.

It may be that the developers didn't know at the time, or because it was essentially one man who didn't do a great deal that there wasn't a point in including him.

I've only ever seen a Wiki article and a lot of popular media referencing him. I've not come across any history books referencing him.

[Goodyear]

He was notable enough to at least inspire some aspects of the Afro Samurai franchise, and influence a lot of pop culture in Japan itself. He wasn't a legendary warrior like Benkei, or the debatabley greatest shinobi to ever live like Hanzo, but from what I can gather, he was like a symbol of prestige, and fought in several engagements, surviving through the battle that ultimately led to Nobunaga committing seppuku and being able to serve Nobutada. In fact, being black saved his life, because after he was captured, Akechi Mitsuhide said he wasn't Japanese, so he was not to be killed, and instead sent to a nanban-ji.

The guy was a 188 cm (6 foot 2 inch) beast, as most African slaves the Portuguese brought them were pretty tall. Considering the average height of the Japanese at the time was 157 cm, he would have stood out even if his skin wasn't as black as charcoal.

At the very least, I think it'd be cool if someone modded it into the game. It's historically accurate, and exactly the sort of cool thing I would have figured I'd have learned from a Total War game first anyway.

[EoNightcore]

I feel he would be more a retainer than an actual unit.

Portugese didn't typically import slaves to Japan after all.

But, if such a unit was created, why would one stop there? There were several non-japanese samurai, most notably from Korea. In fact, a couple from Europe itself, such as Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn or William Adams.

We might as well also make a unit based off lost sailors now in service of Japanese clans.

[Goodyear]

We've got the Black Ship or whatever, but yeh, adding in Portuguese mercenaries would work, and as far as the Korean thing goes, I'd honestly want to see a Shogun 3 with more expansive campaigns than purely in the region of Japan. Personally, I'd like seeing a campaign that also includes Han China and the Mongols, and add a "Divine Winds" mechanic to make sailing and naval engagements more interesting.

Who knows, after Attila and now Three Kingdoms, maybe CA will revisit the region in another instalment that reaches the scope of Rome 2.

[cyyniic]

Find the book, African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan. Excellent historical read released in 2019. I totally agree this could be a great addition to the game as he was one of Oda Nobunaga's samurai bodyguard.

[BastardSword]

Go play Nioh.

:)

Originally posted by Goodyear:

as far as the Korean thing goes, I'd honestly want to see a Shogun 3 with more expansive campaigns than purely in the region of Japan.

You will never see a game with Korean "collaborators" working for Japan. And you'll never see the Imjin War (Japanese invasion of Korea) in a game where you can play as either side. Korean nationalists will never accept a representation of collaborators, even though South Korea was founded by men who fought in the Japanese army in WW2. And they'll never accept a game where Japan could defeat Korea, or a game where Koreans aren't 20 feet tall and can kill 500 craven Japanese samurai with a single punch. Even if SEGA banned selling the game in South Korea, Korean nationalists would still create a political correctness campaign in Western countries to try and get such a game banned. I'm surprised they haven't discovered the Morning Sun mod and organized a campaign against it. I'm also surprised that they haven't tried to get Shogun 2 banned for correctly naming the Sea of Japan instead of using the Korean term "the East Sea."

[Mile pro Libertate]

Originally posted by Goodyear:

So apparently, Oda Nobunaga had an advisor and retainer that was a black man and former Portuguese slave, whom Nobunaga made a samurai. Benkei's Blades and Hanzo's Shadows are cool and all, but I'd like to see Yasuke's Black Samurai, that'd be sick. Just a bunch of former African slaves spreading Christianity across Japan.

We're talking one guy here, not a bunch of guys, let alone enough for even a Hero unit.

[Red Spot]

Originally posted by Mile pro Libertate:

Originally posted by Goodyear:

So apparently, Oda Nobunaga had an advisor and retainer that was a black man and former Portuguese slave, whom Nobunaga made a samurai. Benkei's Blades and Hanzo's Shadows are cool and all, but I'd like to see Yasuke's Black Samurai, that'd be sick. Just a bunch of former African slaves spreading Christianity across Japan.

We're talking one guy here, not a bunch of guys, let alone enough for even a Hero unit.

Newbs necro'ed a 2 year old topic MpL...
If this was earlier in development and CA had hired a black person we would have had loads of black units, like women generals in Rome2 cause CA hired women :D

[Goodyear]

Originally posted by Red Spot:

Originally posted by Mile pro Libertate:

We're talking one guy here, not a bunch of guys, let alone enough for even a Hero unit.

Newbs necro'ed a 2 year old topic MpL...
If this was earlier in development and CA had hired a black person we would have had loads of black units, like women generals in Rome2 cause CA hired women :D

Right, because you know, Boudicca never existed

[Mile pro Libertate]

Originally posted by Goodyear:

Originally posted by Red Spot:

Newbs necro'ed a 2 year old topic MpL...
If this was earlier in development and CA had hired a black person we would have had loads of black units, like women generals in Rome2 cause CA hired women :D

Right, because you know, Boudicca never existed

Boudica was the wife of a chieftain, who assumed leadership of a rebellion following his death and her own brutalization. She was a social elite and one-time political leader, not a "general," ie. war chief, warband leader, warrior with retainers, etc.

It's similar with queen Zenobia of Palmyra, or Cleopatra of Egypt: these were political figures, not warriors serving as tactical commanders, let alone what we would call, in our own age's terminology, a "general," responsible for the "theater level" direction of "armies," holding a "field command," etc.

What I've told people before is to look at a figure such as Margaret Thatcher, in order to get a better grasp on this. Thatcher was the political leader in the UK, and by virtue of status and office, nominal leader of the UK military too, after the monarch of course. Like the monarch, she was in command in a nominal and titular sense; less titular than the queen, but actually even more in the nominal sense.

Anyway, what should be obvious here, is that Margaret Thatcher was not directing the operations of the UK fleet and troops, in any kind of a tactical or theater-strategic sense. She wasn't a general.

But a thousand years from now, she'd be declared as having been one, using the same logic people are using today to retroactively make Zenobia, Boudicca et al into "generals" or "warriors."

Using that "logic," then we'd infer that Margaret Thatcher conducted the Falklands campaign, that she "lead the troops" onto the beaches, that she was ducking from Argentine air strikes on the fleet, etc. But she didn't and she wasn't.

[Goodyear]

Well, I'm sorry your immersion was broken, but a commanders gender has no mechanical differences, so it's pointless to complain about.

[Red Spot]

Originally posted by Goodyear:

Well, I'm sorry your immersion was broken, but a commanders gender has no mechanical differences, so it's pointless to complain about.

It is pointless to introduce it. Nobody was complaining, it was just stated, then you had had to bring in some nonsense.

[Mile pro Libertate]

Originally posted by Goodyear:

Well, I'm sorry your immersion was broken, but a commanders gender has no mechanical differences, so it's pointless to complain about.

It's pointless to bring it up here, which you did. It's baseless to argue for female generals, outside a political agenda, ie. feminist ideology.

[Goodyear]

Bruh, I was talking about a black samurai, when you whine bags came in here screeching about women in Rome 2, a completely different game to the one this thread is posted in. Your ego's are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fragile that you necro'd a two year old thread just so you could ♥♥♥♥♥ about a tiny feature of a seven year old game. Sit the ♥♥♥♥ back down.