Thomas Lockley, the author of African Samurai:
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
In an interview on the Lance E. Lee Podcast from Tokyo on YouTube, Lockley stated, “I don’t know whether the game Assassin’s Creed should have him as the main character or should have somebody else as main character. Quite frankly, I don’t care.”
Lee then asks him, “But you have nothing to do with it anyway?” Lockley replies, “Nothing to do with it.”
Lee then asks, “You see no royalties or anything?” Lockley responded, “No, no it was nothing to do… Though my book is starting to sell well again, which is nice. That’s nice.”
He then added, “But don’t attack Yasuke as a man. Let’s remember this man for who he was and the great things that he did.”
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
This is not the first time Lockley has made such a claim.
On his Facebook account, he also wrote, “Thank you for your support over the years. Due to hate mail connected with Assassin’s Creed game, with which I have nothing to do and have no intention of playing but many people seem to think I am responsible for, I will be freezing this account. I hope not forever, but who knows.”
Thomas Lockley Author on Facebook
However, Lockley did indeed collaborate with Ubisoft for an episode of their Echoes of History podcast titled Yasuke: The First African Samurai podcast. The description of the episode states, “Yasuke is one of the most captivating and yet mysterious figures within Japanese history. In 1581, at the height of the civil war, he crossed paths with the country’s most powerful warlord, Oda Nobunaga. Their meeting bound the two men together and set Yasuke on a path to becoming the first known samurai of African descent in Japan.”
Delving into the history behind one of the two main characters in the latest Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Matt Lewis and Thomas Lockley examine the few surviving historical sources to reveal what we know about Yasuke, Japan’s first African samurai,” it adds.
The description concludes with making it clear it’s produced by Ubisoft, “Echoes of History is a Ubisoft podcast, brought to you by History Hit.
A screenshot of Ubisoft’s Echoes of History: Yasuke: The First African Samurai podcast episode on Spotify
Podcast host Matt Lewis also introduces the episode saying, “In case you haven’t had the chance to see it yet, the world premiere trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows was released and you can see it takes place in Feudal Japan. This is a time famous for its samurai and ninjas, an era rich in history, culture, and stories. For the next few episodes in this series we’ll be exploring this fascinating period in history. So far we’ve traveled back in time to the Sengoku period, sowed the seeds for the unification of Japan, and culture collider with the arrival of Portuguese missionaries on Japanese shores.”
He continued, “Today we’re tracing the story of a key figure in this era of upheaval. Japan’s first black samurai, Yasuke. As one of the main two characters in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’ll get to see the world of Feudal Japan through the eyes of the legendary African samurai. But how and when did Yasuke end up in Japan? What was his journey to becoming Japan’s first black samurai? And what can his story tell us about life in Sengoku Japan? To find out more about this notorious and yet mysterious figure fromJapanese history, I’m joined by Thomas Lockley, Associate Professor at Nihon University in Tokyo and author of African Samurai:
Clearly, Lockley did indeed collaborate with Ubisoft for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and had something to do with the game.
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Not only is Lockley lying about collaborating with Ubisoft, but this appears to be a pattern of behavior as noted by Japanese tutor Naoto, who has done significant research into Lockley’s claims regarding Yasuke and how it influenced Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Following an exhaustive breakdown of an interview Lockley gave with The Japan Times regarding Yasuke, Naoto concludes, “I used to think he was just a presumptuous, speculative researcher. However, what I understand from his interview in The Japan Times is that he is deliberately lying. He, who distorts history for his political beliefs, is not qualified to be a historian.”
Naoto added, “Without his book, the latest Assassin’s Creed would have featured a Japanese ninja as the protagonist. Even if Yasuke could act as a mediator between the Jesuits and Nobunaga, that was not a role significant enough to make him the protagonist. At most, he would have been an NPC. Once again, I strongly feel that his ‘research’ has changed the content of the game set in Japan and Japanese history.
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Lockley also previously claimed that his book was fact checked by Sakujin Kirino. However, Kirino noted this was not the case.
As translated by Naoto, Kirino posted on X, “Regarding the Japanese edition of ‘Nobunaga and Yasuke’ by Thomas Lockley, published by Ohta Publishing in 2017, translator Yoshiko Fuji asked me to read through it and provide my thoughts. I gave a few comments, but it was nothing as grand as a fact-check.
Sakujin Kirino on X
In fact, Naoto also notes that Lockley’s original intention for his book African Samurai:
In an interview with News-Digest, Lockley was asked why he was interested in Yasuke. As translated by Naoto, Lockley answered, “Around 2009 or 2010, I accidentally came across a link about Yasuke online. As soon as I clicked it, I was fascinated by this real-life figure. It was so romantic, adventurous, war-filled, passionate, and agonizing that it felt like fiction. I couldn’t forget about him, and about a year later, I started writing a novel about Yasuke for my own enjoyment. I paused to prioritize daily life like work and family but resumed writing in 2015, shifting towards an academic approach to pursue the truth.”
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
It does not appear that Lockley pursued truth at all given the claim that Yasuke was a samurai is heavily disputed.
Naoto points to Professor Mihoko Oka, the editor of Connecting World History 2, who commented on X, “Even among Japanese researchers, there are various theories on the definition of ‘samurai,’ making it difficult to answer. The use of ‘samurai’ overseas is even more different. Since no one before Prof. Lockley had shown academic interest in ‘Yasuke,’ there would be no researchers who have strictly defined “samurai” in the Sengoku period and then positioned ‘Yasuke’ as ‘samurai.'”
Mihoko Oka on X
What do you make of Lockley lying about not collaborating with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
