azuchi-momoyama period, 1568-1603

"Set in the late sixteenth century, and traversing Africa, India, and Japan, African Samurai is a powerful literary historical novel based on the true-life story of Yasuke, Japan's first foreign-born samurai and the only samurai to be of African descent."--.

Warrior. Samurai. Legend. The remarkable life of history's first foreign-born samurai, and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society.When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, literally caused a riot. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned (in local tradition) Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan's martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society. In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries, cultures and classes offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan.

When twenty-fifth century time-travelers Dawkins and Hypatia find a plastic artifact among the Neanderthals, it is an anomaly--but on their next assignment to Japan in 1595 they find much more significant evidence of tampering, using virtual reality to induce belief in a demon tengu, and causing mass hysteria.