Yasuke

Yasuke (?? or ??)(/?j??ske?/) was a man of African origin who served as a kashin (??, retainer) under the Japanese daimy? Oda Nobunaga.

In 1579, Yasuke arrived in Japan in the service of Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, Visitor of Missions in the Indies, in India. Yasuke was one of the several Africans to have come with the Portuguese to Japan during the Nanban trade and is thought by some to have been the first African that Nobunaga had ever seen. He was also present during the Honn?-ji Incident, the forced suicide of Nobunaga at the hands of his general Akechi Mitsuhide on 21 June 1582.

Wikipedia