Yasuke is the first known African to appear in Japanese historical records. Yasuke served Oda Nobunaga between 1581 and 1582, during the Sengoku period. He arrived in Japan in the service of Alessandro Valignano, a Jesuit missionary, in 1579. He was granted a sword, a house and a stipend as a samurai and fought at the Honn?-ji Incident until the death of Nobutada. There are no subsequent records of his life.