We are still months away from it's scheduled release date, and yet it goes without saying that the upcoming Ubisoft title Assassin's Creed Shadows is probably the most controversial video game of 2024. The decision to center the game's story around Yasuke, the "African Samurai," rather than a culturally appropriate fictional protagonist as has always been Assassin's Creed's tendency, has led to a massive backlash from gamers all around the world.
A petition that was started by a Japanese citizen back in June to cancel the upcoming game has now reached more than 100,000 signatures, and is showing no signs of stopping. The level of disrespect that many Japanese people feel that Ubisoft has shown them during the development of this game has created an online movement aimed at protecting Japan's rich and storied history from cultural revisionists.
At the center of this controversy is Thomas Lockley, the man who wrote "African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan." Lockley, an associate professor at Nihon University, has been the target of much of the outrage over the Assassin's Creed Shadow controversy. This is largely due to the revelations that Lockley's book was almost entirely fiction, and, despite his claims that he had no involvement in Ubisoft's game, he was still brought on to consult on Assassin's Creed Shadows.
As people have dug into Thomas Lockley's "research" into Yasuke, it has come to light that many of his claims are based entirely on speculation or misinterpretation. On the official archive site for the Gunma Prefecture, there was a response to a question concerning the use of the word "Kurohou," which Thomas Lockley interpreted to mean a "dark skinned person." However, the response from the archivists completely contradicts this claim.
Question 12
"I heard that an old document in the Gunma Prefectural Archives contains a reference to a person called 'Kurohou,' who is thought to be a black person. Is this true?"
Response:
"In the No. 1 of the Kurima Family Documents (P00101), 'Letter from Kato Kiyomasa, dated unknown' (addressed to Shimokawa Matazaemon and others), the word 'Kuroho' appears in a description related to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea. In 'Black Samurai: Yasuke, the African Samurai who Served Nobunaga,' broadcast on NHK BS4K on March 30, 2021, Nihon University Associate Professor Lockley Thomas stated that the 'Kuroho' mentioned in this document may be the successor to Yasuke, the black warrior who served Oda Nobunaga."
"First of all, the Archives had never recognized this 'Kuroho' as a black person, and were surprised by Mr. Thomas's remark. In fact, regardless of whether this 'Kuroho' was Yasuke, there has long been a view that he was black (Nakajima Rakusho, 'Late 16th Century Kyushu - Trade in Southeast Asia,' Historical Studies Journal, No. 118-8, etc.). However, at this point in time, it only appears in one place in this document, so it is difficult to make a definitive conclusion. For example, the word 'kurohou' appears in the Tale of Genji, meaning 'black fragrance' (pasteurized incense), and appears frequently in Japanese classics."
"Some members of the staff have also expressed the opinion that, when reading the documents of the National Diet Library, it would be more natural to see the description as referring to an object, not a person. Based on the above, the view of the staff of the National Diet Library's Archives Section is that it is difficult to immediately conclude that 'kurohou' refers to a black person at this time."
Much like the Japanese Historian Yu Hirayama, who tried to claim that Yasuke was without a doubt a samurai, most of what Thomas Lockley has spun as "historical fact" is based solely on fiction, speculation, and possible misinterpretation. While Assassin's Creed Shadows may go on to make large sums of money for Ubisoft, the damage to both Ubisoft and Thomas Lockley's reputations has already been done.
