Black Japanese: the African Diaspora in Japan

Written by Neil Turner

Almost three decades ago, while at graduate school in California studying anthropology, I had a colleague and classmate from Japan. Her name is Yoshi. We had several classes, laboratories and seminars together and spent a lot of time in each other’s company. On many occasions, we took lunch together at the university cafeteria and talked about our studies. One day, I asked her about black Japanese people and by the look on her face, it was quite obvious my question took her by surprise. She confirmed that Japan has a history of black Japanese people but it also has its problems with discrimination and color consciousness. For many years, the country has gone to great lengths to keep this history hidden and continues to have problems acknowledging this history with its growing Black-Japanese or “hafu” (half) population. Even before the rising popular interest of the Yasuke inspired “black samurai” anime series, the Netflix Yasuke TV series, and two hollywood films, one of which was to star Chadwick Boseman, there have been some legitimate English and French publications that shed light on this subject. It is also important to note that the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at Oxford University, and the Smithsonian Institute show interest in excavating this history. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to inform those unfamiliar with this part of Japan’s cultural history and to attempt an explaination of some of the narratives surrounding African-Japanese cultural relations.

Without making too deep a dive into existing sources, there are three areas easily accessible concerning this subject. They are religious history, Japanese folklore, and first-person accounts from Japanese people who have been educated in Japan in reference to this area of study. When we consider religious history, the Angelican English missionary John Batchelor, D.D., OBE (1855 – 1944) who lived among the indigenous Ainu people of the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido from 1877 – 1941 is prominent. Apparently, Batchelor set out for Hong Kong with a group of missionaires in 1875 and began to study the Chinese language. During his stay in Hong Kong, Batchelor contracted malaria and fell sick. He was advised that the climate in Hokkaido would be better for his health and he journeyed to the city of Hokodate via Yokohoma in 1877. While living in Hokodate, he became the assistant to the senior missionary there Walter Dening.

In 1886, Batchelor met and befriended a British Japanologist, Basil Hall Chamberlain, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University who visited him to do research and write a book about the Ainu. Batchelor took Chamberlain to Ainu villages which was beneficial to his research. Also in 1889, Batchelor published Japanese Ainu in English and published an Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary. From 1892 – 1905, Batchelor published several books concerning the general history, religious beliefs, superstition, folklore, and division of labor among the Ainu people. It seems that Batchelor criticized the Japanese for treating the Ainu people harsh and cruel. During the era of the samurai, for example, Ainus were made to bow and smear mud over their faces when they met a Japanese soldier or face immediate decapitation. Batchelor went on to document how the Ainu were forcibly driven from their land, forbade to practice their traditions and culture, they were not allowed to hunt for food, speak Ainu, obtain an education, and were segregated into small villages. They were also forbade the ownership of any type of weapons. However, sometime later, the Japanese government stopped their harsh treatment of the Ainu people to some degree when foreigners with money began coming from all over the world to study them. Batchelor went on to write extensively about the Ainu in both English and the Ainu language.

So, the obvioius question is how did Africans end up in Japan or who is believed to be the first African to arrive in Japan? In this regard, we turn to a combination of historic and folkloric information.

When we turn our attention to folklore, there is the Japanese legend of the “Black Samurai.” Although sources concerning the origins of this legend are sketchy, there is sufficient general knowledge to establish it as a bonafide second-hand source. Apparently, the legend is attached to the historical period of the Sengoku (age of warring states) particularly the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1551 – 1616) when a warlord from the Oda Clan – Oda Nobunanga – one of the major Daimyo of this period, took on a servant who would later become one of his most trusted samurai warriors. Nobunanga was famous for being one of the first warlords who attempted to unite all of Japan under a single shogun’s rule. Also, he rebelled against established Japanese tradition by recruiting commoners and peasants, equipping and training them as samurai, and was the first to introduce western firearms into Japanese warfare in 1580. It seems that Yasuke (pron: Yas-Kay) was an African slave that came to Japan with an Italian Jesuit priest Alessandro Valignano on a Portuguese ship that was thrown off course and landed in Japan in 1579. Daimyo Oda Nobunanga came from a smaller Japanese clan and was surrounded by larger clans with much larger armies, however, he was considered a military genius by opening new strategies for warfare. More important, Yasuke seems to have risen from the status of servant to the house of Nobunanga to that of samurai and became one of Nobunanga’s most trusted retainers. In 1581 when the priest Alessandro Valignano requested permission to leave Japan, Oda Nobunanga ordered Yasuke to remain.

Further research traces the origins of yet another black legend in Japanese history. In Japan’s Heian Period (794 – 1185 AD), there is a prominent warrior named, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. Tamuramao served the Emperor Kanmu and was tasked with conquering the Emishi people of Northern Honshū to Hokkaidō sometime between the seventh and eighth centuries. After Emperor Kanmu’s death, the general continued to serve Emperor Heizei and Emperor Saga as Major Counselor (大納言, dainagon) and Minister of War (兵部卿, Hyōbu-kyō). Also, he was the second person to be given the title of Sei-i Taishōgun (征夷大将軍). It is important to note that this is the same geographic region where English missionary John Batchelor lived and wrote about the Ainu people six centuries later. Hokkaidō is one of Japan’s largest islands and makes up the largest northern prefecture in its own region. The Tsugartu Strait separates Hokkaidō and Honshu yet the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Selkan Tunnel.

When we examine comments by Japanese people, there is some concurrence with the history and legends. For example, one commentor said, “…while there have been a number of dark skinned people who might well be called or perceived as being black, that doesn’t mean they’re more closely related to African or Indian dark skinned persons. But the answer is yes, and it is largely forgotten by modern Japanese. There were native tribes of Ainu on Japan who often had medium to very dark skin, flat noses, bushy beards and other features not common among modern ethnic Japanese. Much of the record of these people was intentionally destroyed, erased from the public record, because Japan wished to be perceived as a monolithic society all tracing back to the first emperor who descended from the gods.” And another commentor stated, “…they are very few in numbers. It is kind of rude to ask in depth about them, so I only know that one of their parents is dark-skinned. To be honest, since they look different from the rest of the Japanese at a glance, until they speak fluent Japanese to others and identify as “Japanese”, they must have a hard time. As far as I know, they had good Japanese friends and blend in. We also have many Japanese-Brazilians coming back to Japan, who also have darker skin and go through the same kind of treatment at first.”

The University of Oxford’s Natalia Doan whose research and teaching specializes in Japanese history, transnationalism, and popular culture, states that “…hundreds of black people lived and worked in Japan during the 16th century. They worked as interpreters, soldiers, entertainers and more.” Further, although there is a lack of first-hand historical evidence to substiate Sakanoue’s African heritage, its presence along with other representations in Japanese history offer some evidence of an African diaspora in Japan. Moreover, it is not inconceivable that when John Batchlor arrived in the late 19th Century, there may have already been at least six centuries of African presence in that region which undoubtedly challenges some of the narratives concerning Japan’s cultural history.

Sources:

The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, a 17th-century book written by one of Nobunaga’s followers; Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard. 2019. African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan; Jamal Turner’s 2020 children’s book Yasuke: The Legend of the African Samurai; Yasuke also shows up in the 2017 video game “Nioh,” which is set during the Sengoku period; Netflix, 2021. Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan; Netflix, 2021. Yasuke, Anime Series; Stanislaus, Warren, 2021. Black Perspectives, The Significance of Yasuke, the black Samurai; Germaine, Jacquelyne, 2023. Who was Yasuke, Japan’s first Black Samurai, Smithsonian Magazine;