Errr... yes they are.
Some millionaire socialites in the US have bought fucking cars for their dogs. Rich people do this shit and Nobunaga was one of the richest people in Japan at the time.
And what do millionaires in the US have to do with Japanese warlords from the 16th century? Did Nobunaga make a habit of giving houses to his pets? Then why would you assume this was the case for Yasuke? What's more likely, that he was given a house because some of Oda's employees did get houses, or that he was given one because he was a pet when Oda wasn't known to give houses to his pets? Did anyone at one point believed that Nobunaga would make another pet a lord?
I think you're conflating the term pet with a slave. He wasn't a slave. He certainly was Nobunaga's pet. Anyone who is being honest reading the historical record of the guy can see that.
Anyone who knows anything about him would know that he was a servant of Nobunaga. Hence why he was given a stipend and the word used for it was the same one used for Nobunaga's samurais. He worked for him. He wasn't a pet and not a single expert ever claimed that.
Please provide an actual historical source for this, and not some fiction writer's romanticized BS.
This is nonsense and not part of the actual historical record at all. The actual historical is scanty at best. We have no idea what the actual Yasuke was known for, because there's very little historical record written about it.
There's a lot of fan-fiction, but not a lot of actual historical accounts.
The Shinchō Kōki says this:
A black bōzu (黒坊主, kuro-bōzu) from the Christian country has arrived. He appears to be 26 or 27 years old. The blackness of his body is like that of a bull, and he is healthy and of fine physique. Moreover, he has the strength of more than ten men."
He was also 6' to 6'2" which was hilariously larger than the average Japanese man at the time, around a foot taller.
Yes, because that's realistic /s.
It's called hyperbole and is a figure of speech. It's very common in ancient texts. The dude also wasn't literally black as ink, was he? The point is that he was very strong.
You've clearly read works of fiction and confused them for historical fact.
No, these are all sourced. Just because you're ignorant doesn't make them ahistorical.
"Thought to be..." are the operative words here. There is nothing we can use to validate this. It may have been a fictional painting of a black wrestler inspired by Yasuke or a fictional work depicting Yasuke.
I can draw a picture of myself piping a hot blonde. That doesn't mean I actually did it.
And you have no idea how historicity works. Yasuke was the only black man at the time and this also validates the claim about him being huge and strong. Why would you assume all of this when the simplest explanation coincides with what is known about him? Nobunaga was also said to enjoy sumo. You're doing mental gymnastics to deny what's fairly obvious. Is it 100% Yasuke? No. Is it extremely likely? Yes. That's certainly much stronger than, "well, huh, maybe this and that" that you've been parading.
All based on conjecture and very little evidence to substantiate it. It's fan fiction.
How do you think historians work? You think everything is spelled out for them? No. They contextualize what they know and try to draw sensible conclusions from it. You have the nerve to say conjecture and ask for evidence, yet you're the one who called him a pet with fuck-all as evidence to back you up. You even went as far as to use American millionaires in modern times to make a point. That's a supposedly valid argument but a painting and the context of where Yasuke was found isn't and is conjecture? Sure.
You can layer an assumption based on a painting on more assumptions about the places where Yasuke first emerged and then claim those are accurate historical facts about his person. What we actually know about Yasuke is practically fuck all, other than he was a black man in Japan who fell into the favour of Oda Nobunaga for no other reason than his skin colour made him a novel curiosity in the region of Japan.
No, we in fact know more about him than most historical figures in Japan. What we do know about him is that he was a black man, was of large stature, and was also very strong. Nobunaga liked him a lot and kept him as a retainer and gave him a house, a salary, and a sword. We also know that he assisted Nobunaga's son against Akechi's forces.
A black man whom the visitor [Valignano] sent to Nobunaga went to the house of Nobunaga's son after his death and was fighting for quite a long time, when a vassal of Akechi approached him and said, "Do not be afraid, give me that sword", so he gave him the sword.
Again, nothing, and I mean nothing supports your claims of him being a pet. You have a mountain of evidence that completely debunks what you say and you're sitting here pretending like we know nothing of Yasuke. That he was fighting enemy forces with Nobunaga's oldest son also supports the fact that he had a military background because he was found in India where a man of his size and strength would have almost doubtlessly been a slave warrior.
Either provide legitimate counter-arguments or stop being dishonest. This is annoying because you got sources and context but ignore them in favor of your frankly completely wrong interpretation that not a single expert has ever supported. The only people who claim he was a pet are those who threw a hissy fit because he starred in Shadows. Suddenly, we got a bunch of Japanese historians.
It's not just exaggerated. Any claim that he was a warrior because he carried his master's sword is horseshit conjecture meant to romanticize the figure because people like the idea of Yasuke being much more than he very likely actually was.
He fought in at least one battle. That's certainly much more than the absolute nothing you have to support your stance.
So let's review the facts.
1. Yasuke was very tall and very strong
2. He was found in India where Africans were traditionally sold to be slave warriors
3. He was given a samurai's salary and employed by Nobunaga at least as a weapons bearer
4. He was given a house
5. The locals thought he would be made a lord
6. He was given a sword
7. There is a painting depicting a sumo wrestler fighting a black man who was very likely Yasuke
8. He took part in at least one battle, assisting Nobunaga's son against rival forces
With all of this, how can you seriously claim that we know "practically fuck-all" and conclude that he was just a pet? We know more than enough to debunk what you purport.