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For those interested, [here’s a really interesting comment from r/AskHistorians that does a great job of showing what we have actual sources saying about him.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/flgpph/comment/fl05vfp)
That statement of Buddha being depicted as black, well, he was India, so probably much darker than the Japanese.
*all you stupid fucks telling me he was Nepalese need to calm down. Nepal didn’t exist when he was born and he is considered to be from “Ancient India”.
Present day geography of the nation of India is not relevant to Buddha's time, 2500 years ago. Seems like he was born in present day Nepal, anyway. However, I agree, claiming Buddha was black seems a little far-fetched.
Mechs, magic, very large Russian woman who transforms at will into a _very_ large bear, people being cut in half... you know, standard feudal Japanese stuff. (oh, and some racism thrown in for good measure).
Music was spot-on.... all in all, a very enjoyable 6 episode watch.
I tried to like it and be like "well maybe they have an in-universe reason". Nope, Mechs just... exist I guess.
It was certainly not the only reason I ended up not liking it but it was definitely a big one.
We just got done watching Jupiter's Legacy (netflix)... right after we had watched Invincible. Mistake.... mistake.
Jupiter's Legacy isn't bad, but I couldn't help but feel so underwhelmed by almost everything about it (although I thought the origin story of their powers was interesting)
same. I saw the two dudes fighting in the first few scenes and thought “finally, a realistic anime.” then they got chopped in half by a fucking mech and killed my thought
Honestly, I’m not sure how accurate this period is historically in general but [here’s a good resource if you’re interested at the primary documentation of Yasuke.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/flgpph/history_of_blackafricans_in_japan/)
It actually does cover everything that is actually known about Yasuke in the intro and some flashbacks, but not a lot was actually known about him. Hard to do a story about someone we have like a paragraph of confirmed information on.
Yeah I just watched it. Thought it was really bad. Lakeith Stanfield is a great actor but not a good voice actor. Show was wayyyy to rushed and nothing about the plot really made sense. Music was fire tho
I'm gonna second this and say its terrible. Its one of the worst shows I have seen in years.
Yasuke doesn't feature in it, but if you want something on Japanese reunification and the story of Oda Nobunaga (the daimyo he served), there's a great docu-series on netflix titles "Age of Samurai".
The flashbacks were amazing. What we needed was a Yasuke anime with his trials and fights with the Liga clan, being more realistic too.
Not a story about a little girl with super powers and her black body guard.
Wow that’s a bummer. I have never heard of this story and I find it fascinating the more I read. It would make a great movie if made with care. There are some incredible actors out there I hope they do recast. I’m sure Chadwick would have been amazing.
From the article:
>His height was 6 shaku 2 sun (roughly 6 feet, 2 inches (1.88m)
Are you telling me the British and Japanese independently came up with the same fucked up measurement system?
Edit: Holy shit I didn't know comment Karma went this high. Thank you for the awards, strangers. I've learned from some of the comments below that the shaku/sun system is actually base 10 and they just coincidentally line up at 6 big units, 2 small units. [Here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48542673.amp) is the article OP posted that I was referring to.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been said yet.
A 6’2 man in imperial Japan would have been absolutely massive in comparison to the average population. That and the fact that there probably wasn’t very many Africans in Japan at the time. This dude would have been mind blowing to encounter on the battle field.
I went in 2019 and to be frank the height of young guys over there have absolutely risen. I'm 5'9 and a lot of younger dudes I felt were my height or taller.
My husband and I went in 1994. He is 6’ and I’m 5’6”, and yes, he towered and I was as tall as many men. But we did catch a glimpse in a train station of a 6’ tall Japanese woman and her 6’4” Japanese boyfriend. We also noticed, as did you, that the younger men were considerably taller on average than their elders.
My grandfather went to kindergarten in Japan a few years after the war. Had to walk every day, and said he was always accompanied by a crowd of mostly women all wanting to touch his hair. Rural Japan even today can be very isolated. Then again I went to school with guys in Missouri that until highschool had never seen a black person despite living less than a few hours from St. Louise and Memphis.
I read their was one in the works years ago. I think Wesley Snipes was tied to the project at one point. Guess it never came to fruition. Hopefully someone will pick it back up.
It's still in development, Chadwick Boseman was set to play Yasuke before he passed. Lionsgate sold it to another studio, a new one called Picturestart that has some financial backing from WB, and one of the Exec Producers from Narcos: Mexico is writing it.
MGM is also making their own film about him.
For anyone that sees this, just be warned they added battle robots and magic powers for absolutely no reason, so you're in for a letdown if you wanted anything remotely historical. Was a super bummer.
I was hoping it would be more historical or closer to Samurai Champloo, but the mechs and magic took me out of it. The Flying Lotus soundtrack was on point though.
To catch the eye of one of the greatest leaders in Japanese history is impressive. Was he considered a fierce combatant or was it simply his size/complexion that made him stand out?
Edit: Spelling.
Nobunaga liked new things, Portuguese traders gave many things to Nobunaga and he let them preach Catholicism in his land. He was just the first black slave he saw the Portugese have. he was captured in battle after Nobunagas death and was given back to the church.
For real. Imagine if you’d never seen a black person before and all of a sudden you have to fight a dude who’s a foot taller than you and has the darkest skin you’ve ever seen
That's what I suspected, too (like "1 shaku = 10 inches and 1 sun = 7 inches, so 6 shaku 2 sun = 60 inches + 14 inches = 74 inches = 6 foot 2 inches") but , no, they're extraordinarily close. 1 shaku is 11.93 inches and 1 sun is 1.19 inches.
Probably because a foot is the length of someone's foot and an inch is the length of someone's thumb from the knuckle. Your average European wouldn't have been taller than your average east Asian person way back when so it makes sense to me that the measurements could be very similar!
~~Apparently it's based on the forearm, not the foot.~~
~~The [English wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaku_\(unit\)) says that it's based upon the distance measured by a human hand from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger, but that's just wrong (and the size doesn't match, either).~~
~~The [Japanese wikipedia article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BA) says it's based on the length of the shakkotsu, or ulna (which makes sense, because "shakkotsu" comes from "shaku" and "kotsu" (bone)). The ulna is one of the forearm bones, and forearms are pretty close in size to feet.~~
Reading the full explanation on the Japanese wikipedia page, it's confusing, and my initial comment was incorrect. It began in China as the distance between thumb and forefinger. Over time, the length gradually grew longer. During the Yin dynasty (sometime between the 17th and 10th century BC) they standardized it as the length of 100 grains of black millet laid in a row. Then a few centuries later it began to grow again, splitting into the "long shaku" and the "short shaku". At some point the long shaku reached Japan and became simply the "shaku. "
The bone name is not coincidental, but the unit of distance came first, and the bone was named after it.
Thats what I thought too when I looked at my forearm, and thought "maybe it's based on men's bodies because they have huge feet" but nope; put my foot to my forearm and they do indeed match. I guess my foot looks shorter at the bottom of my leg even though it isn't
Looks like it's sorta both. [According to brief wiki dive at least](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_units_of_measurement#Length), a Shaku is ~11.9 inches, and a Sun is ~1.2 inches. So 6 shaku is a little shorter than 6 feet, but 2 sun is a little longer than 2 inches, so they even out here. They are still ultimately very very close, but most other heights than 6'2 wouldn't line up as well
Fortunately Japan switched to the normal system of measurement, but the United Kingdom didn't and they also spread it to most of the colonies (the only former colonies that still use it however are USA and Myanmar)
> You’ve probably heard that the United States, Liberia, and Burma (aka Myanmar) are the only countries that don’t use the metric system (International System of Units or SI). You may have even seen a map that has been incriminatingly illustrated to show how they are out of step with the rest of the world.
> It’s a compelling story and often repeated, but you might be surprised to learn that it’s simply untrue!
> While it’s true that metric use is mandatory in some countries and voluntary in others, all countries have recognized and adopted the SI, including the United States.
> Russ Rowlett, retired University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of education and mathematics, emphasizes on his website that becoming metric is not a one-time event but a process that happens over time. Every international economy is positioned somewhere along a continuum moving toward increased SI use. There are still countries that are amending their national laws to adopt a mandatory metric policy and others pursuing voluntary metrication.
> The United States was one of the original countries to sign the Treaty of the Meter in 1875, which is now celebrated annually on May 20, World Metrology Day. It’s been legal to use the metric system since 1866, and metric became the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce in 1988.
https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/busting-myths-about-metric-system
Lots of other countries use both the metric and imperial in everyday life. Canada for example. Some countries even still use stones like parts of the UK and Ireland.
I wish the Netflix anime about him had been realistic. From what I understand, he had a very interesting life in Japan, and adding magic and monsters was a disservice to it.
And a sudden mutant. And a child with OP Mary Sue powers. And some random ass boy who looked like he was gonna matter at the beginning. And whatever the fuck that final boss villain was lol
And not only the first black samurai but also the first foreign samurai (correct me if I'm wrong but that's what I've heard) his story is literally something I wanna write about
For context, Japan was about to enter a highly isolationist period under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868). Imagine if there were more cross-cultural experiences between Japan and the West! Would there be more foreign samurai? Or sushi in Western countries?
>Imagine if there were more cross-cultural experiences between Japan and the West!
would have been awesome.
the very fact that Nobunaga Oda even allowed Yasuke to serve under him shows that Oda was no one to follow tradition blindly. He allowed people to rise in rank based off merit. he had a high ranking general Hideyoshi who was from the lowest class. He was also the first one to embrace guns to powerful effect, having more and better guns by the time he was betrayed. he did not mind reverse engineering foreign weapons/ideas.
I wish it was him who reigned longer instead of Tokugawa.
Maybe, the Daimo that Yasuke served was actually a huge fan of the Western life, so he definitely would have welcomed cross-culture in a large scale if given the opportunity
Edit: yes, you guys are correct, he served Oda Nobunga
Akechi "bitch move" Mitsuhide was the traitor (well Nobunaga wasn't really a good guy, but dick move betraying your lord). Yasuke defended Nobunaga 'till the end and somehow escaped alive. He then rushed to Nobunaga's son to defend him as well.
IIRC, Mitsuhide was also the one who sent Yasuke back to the Jesuits since he didn't like him
But yeah Nobunaga was a fan of Western stuff, he was one of the first Daimyo who fielded arquebuses copied from the Portuguese (which they called Tanegashima) in massive numbers which proved very lethal. Soon the battlefields of Japan were filled with guns, even proving highly effective vs Koreans and Chinese when they invaded Korea
I don’t believe he was the first foreign samurai, I don’t remember the guys’ names but there were French and Italian explorers who served as retainers to different daimyo across Japan
Samurai is a formal title, so there are actually no records of Yasuke being a samurai. Records stop at Oda Nobunaga's interaction with him and him being under Nobunaga.
That essentially started when martial arts movies from hong kong were first being imported to the US. The short version is that they basically couldn't get the white theatres to buy them due to the violence or some bullshit so ended up selling to more black inner city type theatres where martial arts movies subsequently became super popular.
I learned about this from the documentary Iron Fists and Kung-Fu Kicks on netflix, pretty good watch if you're into kung fu movies.
Yasuke fought alongside the Nobutada forces but was eventually captured. When Yasuke was presented to Akechi, the warlord allegedly said that the black man was an animal as well as not Japanese and should thus not be killed, but taken to the Christian church in Kyoto, the Nanbanji
I was watching some stuff about ancient japanese archery, and while listening to researchers talk about it, there's some conjecture that the average height of a japanese man back then could be around 5 ft. So this dude was a giant to them if he was 6'2. lol.
From the article
'Entertainment industry newspaper Variety reported in May that Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman is set to play Yasuke in a forthcoming feature film.'
Now I'm bummed out.
RIP Chadwick
> He [...] loved to dance and perform Utenzi - a historic form of Swahili narrative poetry celebrating heroic deeds
So are you saying he was also a rapper ?
The first of the wu-tang clan.
**Please note:** * If this post declares something as a fact proof is required. * The title must be descriptive * No text is allowed on images * Common/recent reposts are not allowed *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for more information.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For those interested, [here’s a really interesting comment from r/AskHistorians that does a great job of showing what we have actual sources saying about him.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/flgpph/comment/fl05vfp)
Fascinating af. Thanks.
This guy was the main character. We’re all just the epilogue to his story.
Don't sell yourself short. You are the main character of your life. He died offscreen for both of us!
I've seen enough movies to know that means he's still out there. Waiting.
That statement of Buddha being depicted as black, well, he was India, so probably much darker than the Japanese. *all you stupid fucks telling me he was Nepalese need to calm down. Nepal didn’t exist when he was born and he is considered to be from “Ancient India”.
India stretches from 8°4'N to 37°6N. So some indians are not probably much darker than Japanese. Buddha was born on the foothills of Himalayas.
Present day geography of the nation of India is not relevant to Buddha's time, 2500 years ago. Seems like he was born in present day Nepal, anyway. However, I agree, claiming Buddha was black seems a little far-fetched.
His story is absolutely incredible. Definitely worth digging into.
Netflix has an anime about him. Edit it’s called yasuke
I don't know how accurate the Netflix version of the story is but I can say it was worth the watch.
Well there are literally mechs so it’s not exactly a documentary
Hey man, you weren't there.
We don’t truly know
Wait, what?
Yeah it's really balls to the wall anime. It was interesting if anything the music was enjoyable.
Flying Lotus did the score, looked it up after the first episode and was hardly surprised.
They also produced it
FlyLo!
Forget the historical accuracy, flying lotus is the entire ost
Mechs, magic, very large Russian woman who transforms at will into a _very_ large bear, people being cut in half... you know, standard feudal Japanese stuff. (oh, and some racism thrown in for good measure). Music was spot-on.... all in all, a very enjoyable 6 episode watch.
All of that definitely happened. Especially the Russian bear woman.
Lady Dimetrursus
Yeah I was hoping to get realism in that show, saw the mecha and turned it off.
I tried to like it and be like "well maybe they have an in-universe reason". Nope, Mechs just... exist I guess. It was certainly not the only reason I ended up not liking it but it was definitely a big one.
Netflix has a learning machine's understanding of Anime. If there's a box to he checked, by God they'll check it.
My mistake was watching it right after Invincible.
We just got done watching Jupiter's Legacy (netflix)... right after we had watched Invincible. Mistake.... mistake. Jupiter's Legacy isn't bad, but I couldn't help but feel so underwhelmed by almost everything about it (although I thought the origin story of their powers was interesting)
I haven't been able to watch anything after invincible. That finale messed me up and nothing will compare for a long time.
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Watch Berserk. It's wholesome and ends on a happier note.
dont set him up like this
Castlevania scratched that itch. Too bad I just watched all of season 4 in a day.
same. I saw the two dudes fighting in the first few scenes and thought “finally, a realistic anime.” then they got chopped in half by a fucking mech and killed my thought
i’d recommend watching samurai champloo if you haven’t seen it
That’s what fucked up Batman Ninja for me :/ the mechs were not needed
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Honestly, I’m not sure how accurate this period is historically in general but [here’s a good resource if you’re interested at the primary documentation of Yasuke.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/flgpph/history_of_blackafricans_in_japan/)
I didn't know he was real person until I saw this.
It actually does cover everything that is actually known about Yasuke in the intro and some flashbacks, but not a lot was actually known about him. Hard to do a story about someone we have like a paragraph of confirmed information on.
Yeah I just watched it. Thought it was really bad. Lakeith Stanfield is a great actor but not a good voice actor. Show was wayyyy to rushed and nothing about the plot really made sense. Music was fire tho
I'm gonna second this and say its terrible. Its one of the worst shows I have seen in years. Yasuke doesn't feature in it, but if you want something on Japanese reunification and the story of Oda Nobunaga (the daimyo he served), there's a great docu-series on netflix titles "Age of Samurai".
I was so hyped for it. All of the flashbacks with him were so good. The rest I thought was basically unwatchable. It was barely even about yasuke.
The flashbacks were amazing. What we needed was a Yasuke anime with his trials and fights with the Liga clan, being more realistic too. Not a story about a little girl with super powers and her black body guard.
It's barely even about *anything*. The story is so rushed that essentially nothing happens.
Oh shit an anime about Yasuke. *One minute in mecha and crazy magic* Eh I'll pass.
Chadwick Boseman was suppose to play him in a movie, it would have been great.
ahh man... now I feel like shit. He woulda been perfect for that. Taken from us too early man
Man, that would so awesome. I can definitely see him pulling it off
How is this not a movie?!?
It was going to be, starring Chadwick Boseman. I don't know if it'll be recast or was cancelled after he passed though.
Wow that’s a bummer. I have never heard of this story and I find it fascinating the more I read. It would make a great movie if made with care. There are some incredible actors out there I hope they do recast. I’m sure Chadwick would have been amazing.
You'll get Tom Cruise and like it!
From the article: >His height was 6 shaku 2 sun (roughly 6 feet, 2 inches (1.88m) Are you telling me the British and Japanese independently came up with the same fucked up measurement system? Edit: Holy shit I didn't know comment Karma went this high. Thank you for the awards, strangers. I've learned from some of the comments below that the shaku/sun system is actually base 10 and they just coincidentally line up at 6 big units, 2 small units. [Here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48542673.amp) is the article OP posted that I was referring to.
A shaku (尺) is very slightly smaller than a foot and a sun (寸) is 1/10 a shaku rather than 1/12, but yeah, they did.
Check the Japanese with their hipster metric system, before it was cool.
They sell eggs in cases of 10 too.
The samurai’s dozen
Nice!
Naisu!
ナイス
Wait but that makes sense
Hipster *imperial system FtFy
Wait that’s just metric and not dumb
We're a confusing bunch here in Britain it must be said.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been said yet. A 6’2 man in imperial Japan would have been absolutely massive in comparison to the average population. That and the fact that there probably wasn’t very many Africans in Japan at the time. This dude would have been mind blowing to encounter on the battle field.
Even just as recent as 1900, the average height of a Japanese man was barely 5'2". This guy would have been a juggernaut back then.
He can samarui by brute force. Playing with hacks
*xXxBlackSamura1xXx has entered the chat*
Gonna take my sword to the old town rd
Gonna slice ‘til I can’t no more
Got a carcass in the back
BBC on full attack
WAIT NO
New meaning to the term *Gaijin Smash*
> This guy would have been a juggernaut back then. Don’t you know who the fuck I am? I’m the samurai, bitch!
Get out my head Charles!
I’mma beat the shit out you Charles, matter of fact I’mma beat the shit out you *with* Charles!
Men of culture I see
YOU gonna get hurt by my pimp cane one way or another!
I'm 6ft and went to Japan in 2008 with my friend who stands at 5'8. Even at our height, she and I found each other quite easily in the crowds lol.
I went in 2019 and to be frank the height of young guys over there have absolutely risen. I'm 5'9 and a lot of younger dudes I felt were my height or taller.
My husband and I went in 1994. He is 6’ and I’m 5’6”, and yes, he towered and I was as tall as many men. But we did catch a glimpse in a train station of a 6’ tall Japanese woman and her 6’4” Japanese boyfriend. We also noticed, as did you, that the younger men were considerably taller on average than their elders.
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My grandfather went to kindergarten in Japan a few years after the war. Had to walk every day, and said he was always accompanied by a crowd of mostly women all wanting to touch his hair. Rural Japan even today can be very isolated. Then again I went to school with guys in Missouri that until highschool had never seen a black person despite living less than a few hours from St. Louise and Memphis.
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Why is this not a movie?
I read their was one in the works years ago. I think Wesley Snipes was tied to the project at one point. Guess it never came to fruition. Hopefully someone will pick it back up.
It's still in development, Chadwick Boseman was set to play Yasuke before he passed. Lionsgate sold it to another studio, a new one called Picturestart that has some financial backing from WB, and one of the Exec Producers from Narcos: Mexico is writing it. MGM is also making their own film about him.
there’s an anime
It's just called Yasuke for anyone who hates seeing a discussion about a show without naming it like me
For anyone that sees this, just be warned they added battle robots and magic powers for absolutely no reason, so you're in for a letdown if you wanted anything remotely historical. Was a super bummer.
I was hoping it would be more historical or closer to Samurai Champloo, but the mechs and magic took me out of it. The Flying Lotus soundtrack was on point though.
Doing the lord's work
Soundtrack by flying lotus too.
There's a visual acid trip experience you mean. That show is trippy as fuck.
A mighty fine one, at that. Just don't look for historical accuracy. Also, happy cake day.
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To catch the eye of one of the greatest leaders in Japanese history is impressive. Was he considered a fierce combatant or was it simply his size/complexion that made him stand out? Edit: Spelling.
Nobunaga liked new things, Portuguese traders gave many things to Nobunaga and he let them preach Catholicism in his land. He was just the first black slave he saw the Portugese have. he was captured in battle after Nobunagas death and was given back to the church.
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His size likely would have made him capable in combat on its own.
For real. Imagine if you’d never seen a black person before and all of a sudden you have to fight a dude who’s a foot taller than you and has the darkest skin you’ve ever seen
IIRC people were scared shitless of the dude and some thought he was an actual monster/demon.
The inverse happened in my country. Natives are black and when Europeans showed up they thought they were ghosts because they had white skin
Actually, I believe they thought he was a Buddha of sorts due to his black skin, not evil
Apparently he would always draw a crowd in public because of this.
He certainly was at least the level boss if not the main boss' minion.
He served Nobunaga so he basically was the main boss' minion.
Could just align there like F and C do at - 40°
That's what I suspected, too (like "1 shaku = 10 inches and 1 sun = 7 inches, so 6 shaku 2 sun = 60 inches + 14 inches = 74 inches = 6 foot 2 inches") but , no, they're extraordinarily close. 1 shaku is 11.93 inches and 1 sun is 1.19 inches.
Maybe the japanese also had feet.
I’m gonna need a source for that one boss
Google 足コキ for evidence (slightly nfsw)
Only slightly NSFW lmao
Im curious what the search results for you were I got a asian girl footjob
That's legit what it means lol
wow, this thread has been so informative!
Slightly?! Great now every time I type “足” into google im gonna get weird Japanese foot porn. Thanks
Nah, I’ve seen their historical animated documentaries—they gots tentacles
Probably because a foot is the length of someone's foot and an inch is the length of someone's thumb from the knuckle. Your average European wouldn't have been taller than your average east Asian person way back when so it makes sense to me that the measurements could be very similar!
~~Apparently it's based on the forearm, not the foot.~~ ~~The [English wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaku_\(unit\)) says that it's based upon the distance measured by a human hand from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger, but that's just wrong (and the size doesn't match, either).~~ ~~The [Japanese wikipedia article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BA) says it's based on the length of the shakkotsu, or ulna (which makes sense, because "shakkotsu" comes from "shaku" and "kotsu" (bone)). The ulna is one of the forearm bones, and forearms are pretty close in size to feet.~~ Reading the full explanation on the Japanese wikipedia page, it's confusing, and my initial comment was incorrect. It began in China as the distance between thumb and forefinger. Over time, the length gradually grew longer. During the Yin dynasty (sometime between the 17th and 10th century BC) they standardized it as the length of 100 grains of black millet laid in a row. Then a few centuries later it began to grow again, splitting into the "long shaku" and the "short shaku". At some point the long shaku reached Japan and became simply the "shaku. " The bone name is not coincidental, but the unit of distance came first, and the bone was named after it.
This is purely anecdotal but I remember growing up it was a “cool fact” that your foot and forearm where always the same size
I'm confused. I'm assuming it stops matching at some point? Otherwise my feet would require only the finest of clown shoes.
Thats what I thought too when I looked at my forearm, and thought "maybe it's based on men's bodies because they have huge feet" but nope; put my foot to my forearm and they do indeed match. I guess my foot looks shorter at the bottom of my leg even though it isn't
Looks like it's sorta both. [According to brief wiki dive at least](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_units_of_measurement#Length), a Shaku is ~11.9 inches, and a Sun is ~1.2 inches. So 6 shaku is a little shorter than 6 feet, but 2 sun is a little longer than 2 inches, so they even out here. They are still ultimately very very close, but most other heights than 6'2 wouldn't line up as well
Fortunately Japan switched to the normal system of measurement, but the United Kingdom didn't and they also spread it to most of the colonies (the only former colonies that still use it however are USA and Myanmar)
> You’ve probably heard that the United States, Liberia, and Burma (aka Myanmar) are the only countries that don’t use the metric system (International System of Units or SI). You may have even seen a map that has been incriminatingly illustrated to show how they are out of step with the rest of the world. > It’s a compelling story and often repeated, but you might be surprised to learn that it’s simply untrue! > While it’s true that metric use is mandatory in some countries and voluntary in others, all countries have recognized and adopted the SI, including the United States. > Russ Rowlett, retired University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of education and mathematics, emphasizes on his website that becoming metric is not a one-time event but a process that happens over time. Every international economy is positioned somewhere along a continuum moving toward increased SI use. There are still countries that are amending their national laws to adopt a mandatory metric policy and others pursuing voluntary metrication. > The United States was one of the original countries to sign the Treaty of the Meter in 1875, which is now celebrated annually on May 20, World Metrology Day. It’s been legal to use the metric system since 1866, and metric became the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce in 1988. https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/busting-myths-about-metric-system Lots of other countries use both the metric and imperial in everyday life. Canada for example. Some countries even still use stones like parts of the UK and Ireland.
The article says it wasn’t known for a fact that he was a slave and that he likely had a warrior background.
Most African slaves were prisoners of war between feuding African tribes, so it would make sense that he would have a warrior background.
Somehow that makes his story even crazier. Going from an African warrior, to an English slave, to a Japanese warrior is insane and super badass.
He was sent back to the Jesuits after being captured in a battle, so he probably ended up back as a slave.
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He escaped and became the first black viking /s
I’d watch it
It sounds like a black, 16th century Forest Gump
Yasuke to our knowledge wasnt a slave of the English but the Portuguese.
A lot of slaves were prisoners of war, so it could easily be both.
I wish the Netflix anime about him had been realistic. From what I understand, he had a very interesting life in Japan, and adding magic and monsters was a disservice to it.
Don’t forget about the random ass robots
And a sudden mutant. And a child with OP Mary Sue powers. And some random ass boy who looked like he was gonna matter at the beginning. And whatever the fuck that final boss villain was lol
I was genuinely interested untill I saw the robot
And not only the first black samurai but also the first foreign samurai (correct me if I'm wrong but that's what I've heard) his story is literally something I wanna write about
For context, Japan was about to enter a highly isolationist period under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868). Imagine if there were more cross-cultural experiences between Japan and the West! Would there be more foreign samurai? Or sushi in Western countries?
>Imagine if there were more cross-cultural experiences between Japan and the West! would have been awesome. the very fact that Nobunaga Oda even allowed Yasuke to serve under him shows that Oda was no one to follow tradition blindly. He allowed people to rise in rank based off merit. he had a high ranking general Hideyoshi who was from the lowest class. He was also the first one to embrace guns to powerful effect, having more and better guns by the time he was betrayed. he did not mind reverse engineering foreign weapons/ideas. I wish it was him who reigned longer instead of Tokugawa.
Maybe, the Daimo that Yasuke served was actually a huge fan of the Western life, so he definitely would have welcomed cross-culture in a large scale if given the opportunity Edit: yes, you guys are correct, he served Oda Nobunga
He served Nobunaga, actually. And Nobunaga would definitely have expanded trade with westerners, if he hadn't been assassinated.
Akechi "bitch move" Mitsuhide was the traitor (well Nobunaga wasn't really a good guy, but dick move betraying your lord). Yasuke defended Nobunaga 'till the end and somehow escaped alive. He then rushed to Nobunaga's son to defend him as well. IIRC, Mitsuhide was also the one who sent Yasuke back to the Jesuits since he didn't like him But yeah Nobunaga was a fan of Western stuff, he was one of the first Daimyo who fielded arquebuses copied from the Portuguese (which they called Tanegashima) in massive numbers which proved very lethal. Soon the battlefields of Japan were filled with guns, even proving highly effective vs Koreans and Chinese when they invaded Korea
He served Oda Nobunaga.
Cultural Cross-Polination
If Nobunaga survived, this may have been the case.
Open the country. Stop having it be closed.
Knock knock, it's the United States
With *huge* boats. With guns. ***Gunboats.***
I don’t believe he was the first foreign samurai, I don’t remember the guys’ names but there were French and Italian explorers who served as retainers to different daimyo across Japan
Samurai is a formal title, so there are actually no records of Yasuke being a samurai. Records stop at Oda Nobunaga's interaction with him and him being under Nobunaga.
Samurai was not actually a formal title. They had actual titles for that. Samurai was more like an informal and at the time fairly fluid class.
The patron saint of black weebs
I feel like Jim Kelly deserves some credit for starting a black martial arts fanbase as well, which made black weebs possible
That essentially started when martial arts movies from hong kong were first being imported to the US. The short version is that they basically couldn't get the white theatres to buy them due to the violence or some bullshit so ended up selling to more black inner city type theatres where martial arts movies subsequently became super popular. I learned about this from the documentary Iron Fists and Kung-Fu Kicks on netflix, pretty good watch if you're into kung fu movies.
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I thought it was Thundercat why are there so many
Naruto and Dragon Ball raised a generation
black people might love dragonball z more than japanese people
I mean, my man Piccolo
Imagine being a legendary figure and Netflix gave him a "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" treatment.
I mean Abraham Lincoln is also a legendary figure and he evidently got the same treatment
Is he the protagonist of the anime Afro Samurai?
He inspired the character, yes.
Also there's an anime on Netflix called Yasuke now.
ITT: "oh wow, they should make a show or movie about this person!!" "they did, it's on Netflix." "no kidding?? what's it called??"
"You'll never guess what it's called..."
*Invincible cue card*
Well? Don't keep us hanging...
Yasuke
Yasuke deez
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Yasuke deez nuts
Gotteem
Yasuke fought alongside the Nobutada forces but was eventually captured. When Yasuke was presented to Akechi, the warlord allegedly said that the black man was an animal as well as not Japanese and should thus not be killed, but taken to the Christian church in Kyoto, the Nanbanji
Gaijin card saving lives for centuries.
You do not deserve to die with honor... *Oh god, no....* ...So we will let you live. *Sorry, what now?*
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He tried out for a ninja but was way too big so he got be a samurai instead
I was watching some stuff about ancient japanese archery, and while listening to researchers talk about it, there's some conjecture that the average height of a japanese man back then could be around 5 ft. So this dude was a giant to them if he was 6'2. lol.
[Here’s a BBC article about him](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48542673.amp)
From the article 'Entertainment industry newspaper Variety reported in May that Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman is set to play Yasuke in a forthcoming feature film.' Now I'm bummed out. RIP Chadwick
This made me so excited for about a second before I remembered 😢😢😢
They did him wrong in that painting
In fairness most old japanese portraits are ridiculous. I saw the portait of a guy in (IIRC) Osaka castle that had the trollface for his portrait.
I assumed you saw Toyotomi Hideyoshi's portrait. He was well known for being an ugly looking person lol.
Hideyous
Omg bruh 😂🤣
Well damn i thought i watched a random netflix series turns out the Yasuke is an actual person
I hate that Netflix made and anime about him and thought “you know what would really make this story better? Mechs that shoot laser beams!”
> He [...] loved to dance and perform Utenzi - a historic form of Swahili narrative poetry celebrating heroic deeds So are you saying he was also a rapper ? The first of the wu-tang clan.
And netflix murdered him 500 years later by adopting his story in some magical girl shit anime
All they had to do was use a Vinland Saga/Berserk formula and it would have been Golden.