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Highbrows snobbishly regard anyone reading a book's last pages, before starting at page one, as decidedly lowbrow. Lowbrow or not, there are exceptions, and I suggest Yasuke - pronounced Yas-kay - is one.
It's a good idea for anyone without basic cultural understanding of this relatively unknown period to tackle Lockley's Afterword, Author Note and Notes, study Japan's feudal map then, step out alongside Yasuke from Prelude: Yasuke de gozaru to follow Yasuke's remarkable Japanese journey.
The Afterwords fill gaps the reader may be asking while immersed in the 400 odd pages it takes to tell this extraordinary biography concerning Yasuke - Japan's first African samurai. They detail Jesuit influence; how and why the Mori clan drove Catholics out; Japanese habits such as blackening teeth (Ohaguro); marriage, divorce and women's place in society; bowing; cultural similarities linking African...