Despite having been interviewed by the dev team regarding the game’s historical context – or at least his interpretation of it – Thomas Lockley, the academic responsible for the affirmative ‘Yasuke was a true black Samurai’ narrative, is attempting to claim that he had “nothing to do” with Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
An English-born scholar currently employed as an associate law professor at Japan’s Nihon University, Lockley is perhaps best known as the author of the 2019 book African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan, wherein he puts forth the claim, based on his own “informed, research-based assumptions” rather than any factual historical documents, that the historical Yasuke was not a mere retainer to Oda Nobunaga, but a full-blown Samurai in his own right.
In light of Ubisoft’s recent decision to base their next Assassin’s Creed title partly on Lockley’s narrative, the academic has recently found himself under fire from not only Western players, but those in Japan as well, with some of the nation’s politicians even going so far as to call for an investigation into his claims.
Yasuke (TBA) and Naoe (TBA) prepare to assault the local Daimyo’s stronghold in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
To this end, Lockley was pressed for his thoughts on the backlash to both his work and Shadows‘ decision to take inspiration from it by the eponymous host of the Lance E. Lee Podcast In Tokyo during an appearance on the 364th episode of the Japanese culture-centric show.
“I don’t know whether the game Assassin’s Creed should have him as the main character or it should have somebody else as the main character,” Lockley told Lee. “Quite frankly, I don’t care. I have nothing to do with it! Don’t attack Yasuke.”
Asked by Lee “You see no royalties, or anything?”, the academic ultimately affirmed, “No, though my book’s starting to sell well again, which is nice.”
However, as previously reported by BIC’s own Cider Hype, Lockley did, in fact, have ‘something’ to do with Shadows.
On May 27th, the featured as the subject-matter expert on the Yasuke: The First African Samurai episode of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed-centric new history podcast, Echoes of History.
“Yasuke is one of the most captivating and yet mysterious figures within Japanese history,” reads the episodes official synopsis, as written on its Spotify page. “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.”
To this end, while Lockley may have had nothing to do with the actual development of Shadows‘ graphics, mechanics, or story elements, it’s clear that he at least worked with Ubisoft in a consultation capacity, even if just as their go-to talking head for podcast interviews regarding the game’s narrative.
As of writing, neither Lockley nor Ubisoft have commented on the academic’s false claim.
Yasuke (TBA) steels himself to save a local village from some bandits in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Meanwhile, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is still on course to hit shelves on November 12th.
