Yasuke is the first known African to appear in Japanese historical records. Yasuke served as a samurai to Oda Nobunaga between 1581 and 1582, during the Sengoku period. He arrived in Japan in the service of the Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano in 1579. Some historians have suggested that Yasuke may have been Muslim. He was granted a sword, a house and a stipend. He fought at the Honn?-ji Incident.