In 1579 a Portuguese trade ship sails into port at Kinchotsu Japan loaded with European
wares and weapons. Also aboard is an East African slave. Taken from his village as a boy sold
to mercenaries and forced to fight in Indian wars that meant nothing to him he is a young but
experienced soldier. Serving as the protector for a high-ranking Italian priest the young man
joins an expedition pushing inland towards the capital city of Kyoto. There they meet Oda
Nobunaga the most powerful warlord in Japan who is preparing a campaign to unify the country
after more than a hundred years of civil war. Under the tutelage of Nobunaga the young African
soldier becomes the great warrior Yasuke Japans first foreign samurai and the only one ever
of African descent. His preoccupation is not a question of power as it is for Nobunaga but
one of freedom. A timeless epic story a magnificent reconstruction and moving study of a lost
historical figure and a truly enthralling narrative thrilling in its dramatization of the
making of modern Japan from which rises the most unlikely of heroes.
