The Father’s Armor
A moment of chaos engulfed the island of Japan at the time of my creation. The 1560s were upon us. A civil war between multiple clans was fought by the samurai, warriors who used the most honorable weapons of war. These warriors fought mainly with swords rather than cowering behind the gunpowder killing machines that the Europeans cursed upon our lands. To protect the warrior within, I was crafted from iron laced horizontally with rivets to expel any blow from swords wielded by opposing clans. Leather, silk, cotton, and wool held me together and transitioned to the protective iron that protected the flesh of the samurai. Lacquered bronze on leather rested on my shoulders to symbolize the Miyoshi Clan I was created for.
Then, the day came. I was introduced to my warrior—the one I would protect for the rest of his time. This was not the usual samurai found in Japan. Yasuke was not the first foreign-born Samurai. When Yasuke was just a child, the 14th shogun, Yoshihide Ashikaga, captured Yasuke’s father. During this process, Ashikaga saw potential in creating a warrior to fight for the Miyoshi Clan. I was granted as a gift to the samurai father whose identity remained a secret to all of Japan for the rest of time. We were sent to Kyoto, the capital. Here, my samurai fought as I protected. Nobunaga Oda descended upon the city. My samurai fought hard as others in our clan were slain, but I held strong. No sword of Nobunaga’s clan could penetrate the armor that I provided. While the father of Yasuke put up an excellent fight, using all the skills that he had trained tirelessly to acquire, the Miyoshi Clan was no match for Nobunaga’s army.
We were captured as others returned to Awa, the home base of the Miyoshi. Nobunaga approached us after our capture. While I was to protect the warrior within, we felt as if this were the end. There was nothing I could do to stop myself from being removed from the body of the Samurai. We would surely perish in the arms of the enemy, or so we thought. I was not separated from the African samurai within. We were alive.
Nobunaga came to us and told us his plan. The plan to save Japan was to unite all those who inhabited the island. Soon, we would all be under one leadership. I was able to continue doing my duties of protecting the one who wields the sword. All that Nobunaga asked was that we protect the city of Kyoto in his honor. The samurai protected the land as the lead and leather that I am composed of protected his flesh. We were tired from the long battles we fought, but we believed in Nobunaga’s vision of unifying Japan so that we may live in peace one day.
In 1573, we received word that our original clan had fallen. Awa had been captured. I was joyful that the wars between the peoples of this land were ending. I was also saddened that the lacquered bronze and leather shoulders symbolizing the clan we were once a part of no longer existed. In 1597, the one I was protecting received excellent news. The son, Yasuke, had arrived in Japan. He was a wonder to the people of this land. Nobunaga was inspired by the efforts of the father and believed it was time for them to be reunited. But the father was ill. He was unable to fight alongside his son. I could protect the father from the wrath of the enemy, but not the wrath of time and age. My duties of protecting the samurai were coming to an end.
On his deathbed, Yasuke arrived to say goodbye to his father. My warrior’s time was here. The father offered me as a gift to his son so that I may go on protecting the young samurai as I did for the father. The father took his blade, the one he wielded in all the battles that we fought together. He brought his blade against the skin of his neck and ended the suffering old age had brought upon him. The warrior’s blood flowed down his neck as he took his last breath, and the life left his eyes. Red stains of the man whom I once protected stained the cloth of my neck. Yasuke slowly removed me from his father’s deceased body, proud of his father’s accomplishments. The father’s death was honorable in the eyes of the people whose culture they found themselves ingrained in. The samurai I once protected was gone, but I remained to tell a story of how the people of this island once lived, fought, and died for their country.
Citations:
Mohamud, Naima. “Yasuke: The Mysterious African Samurai.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Oct. 2019, Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus of Wikipedia’s Kyoto Articles. Retrieved 2 December 2020. Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus of Wikipedia’s Kyoto Articles. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
“Construction.” Tonbo Armory, 9 Sept. 2022,
“Sengoku Jidai: Japan’s Warring States Period.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Accessed 21 Sept. 2023