The Unbelievable Legend of the First Black Samurai
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He was forced to strip. Standing naked in front of the gawking masses, he scrubbed his skin raw to prove to them that his skin was, in fact, Black. Why on earth would he need to do this?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | He was forced to strip, standing naked in front of the galky masses. |
| 0:05.0 | He scrubbed his skin raw to prove to them that his skin was, in fact, black. |
| 0:11.0 | Why on earth would he need to do this? |
| 0:14.0 | This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school. |
| 0:20.0 | It isn't easy to imagine what it feels like to go from being enslaved to becoming a respected samurai warrior. |
| 0:39.0 | Yet Yasuke, the only black man to ever earn the samurai title, lived that life. |
| 0:46.0 | The six-foot, two-inch enslaved African, Yasuke landed in Japan with his Jesuit master in the late 1500s. |
| 0:54.0 | He quickly became a human spectacle to all the locals who had likely never seen a black man before. |
| 1:01.0 | His presence caused such a commotion that people were trampled trying to glimpse his impressive statue. |
| 1:08.0 | The most powerful warlord, Oda Nobunaga, wanted to see Yasuki himself. |
| 1:15.0 | Because he had never seen a man with skin the color of charcoal, Nobunaga forced Yasuki to strip down naked and scrubbed his skin to prove it was not ink. |
| 1:27.0 | Nobunaga took Yasuki into his family. |
| 1:31.0 | He was given a home and his own katana blade and invited to eat with the family. |
| 1:37.0 | Yasuke won many battles alongside the warlord. |
| 1:45.0 | Samurai, one of the most enduring symbols of Japanese culture, and Yasuki's story reveals our cultural footprint on the world. |
| 1:59.0 | We are a people with a rich history and we must never fail to embrace it. |
| 2:05.0 | In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past. |
| 2:09.0 | This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black. |
| 2:13.0 | If you enjoyed this episode and want to show your support, please rate and subscribe to our podcast. |
| 2:19.0 | Together, let's celebrate and honor the legacy of Black History. |
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