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He is known as an avid patron of Chinese thought and culture, inviting a number of Chinese [[Obaku|Ôbaku]] [[Zen]] monks, as well as [[Nagasaki]]-based Japanese scholars of colloquial Chinese language and culture, to his mansions, and appointing [[Ogyu Sorai|Ogyû Sorai]] as a scholar in his service. Yanagisawa also sponsored discussions, sometimes attended by the shogun, of [[Confucian classics]], conducted in Chinese; in connection with this, he also organized language classes in colloquial Chinese which served as the basis for Sorai's own study of the language. When the Chinese monk [[Yuefeng Daozhang]] was interviewed by Tsunayoshi in [[1705]], it is said that Yanagisawa was the only one in the room who did not need to wait for the interpreters to understand what was being said.<ref>[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 56-57.</ref>
He is known as an avid patron of Chinese thought and culture, inviting a number of Chinese [[Obaku|Ôbaku]] [[Zen]] monks, as well as [[Nagasaki]]-based Japanese scholars of colloquial Chinese language and culture, to his mansions, and appointing [[Ogyu Sorai|Ogyû Sorai]] as a scholar in his service. Yanagisawa also sponsored discussions, sometimes attended by the shogun, of [[Confucian classics]], conducted in Chinese; in connection with this, he also organized language classes in colloquial Chinese which served as the basis for Sorai's own study of the language. When the Chinese monk [[Yuefeng Daozhang]] was interviewed by Tsunayoshi in [[1705]], it is said that Yanagisawa was the only one in the room who did not need to wait for the interpreters to understand what was being said.<ref>[[Marius Jansen]], ''China in the Tokugawa World'', Harvard University Press (1992), 56-57.</ref>
Much of the day-to-day details of Yoshiyasu's activities are known from the Yanagisawa family record, ''[[Rakushio nenroku|Rakushidô nenroku]]'', and from ''[[Matsukage nikki]]'', the diary of his wife [[Ogimachi Machiko|Ôgimachi Machiko]].
Yanagisawa had the [[Rikugien]] gardens in [[Edo]] built sometime around 1699-1706, on land granted him in [[1695]], by Tsunayoshi, for a new mansion.
Yanagisawa had the [[Rikugien]] gardens in [[Edo]] built sometime around 1699-1706, on land granted him in [[1695]], by Tsunayoshi, for a new mansion.