Sappho didn’t write about empires—she wrote about the heart. Lost for centuries and surviving in fragments, her lyric voice still redefines what counts as history.

In late-Sengoku Kyoto, a tall African arrived with the Jesuits. Nobunaga tested him, then hired and armed him. Known as Yasuke, he appears at councils and at Honnō-ji—then the record thins. This article gathers the best evidence and clears away the legend.