Yasuke (弥助 or 弥介) was a man of African origin who served as a retainer to the Japanese daimyō Oda Nobunaga in 1581–1582, during the Sengoku period. He was employed as a koshō (小姓, page or sword-bearer) for a period of 15 months until Nobunaga's death in the Honnō-ji Incident. Birth and early life Among those whose names have been ascertained, he is the earliest African to appear in Japanese historical records, but his confirmed period of stay in Japan was very short – about three years, from 17 August 1579 to 21 June 1582. There are few historical documents on Yasuke, with only fragmentary accounts in the letters of the Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis, Ōta Gyūichi's Shinchō Kōki (信長公記, ...