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Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu was a prominent shogunal advisor, serving as [[Tairo|Tairô]] from [[1706]] to [[1709]].

Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu was a prominent shogunal advisor, serving as [[Tairo|Tairô]] from [[1706]] to [[1709]].

Previously known as Fusayasu and Yasuakira, he was born into a samurai family, and was initially a mere page (''[[kosho|koshô]]'') within the shogunate, with a [[stipend]] of 150 ''[[koku]]''. However, at some point, he became a personal favorite of [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]], and was promoted to a fief of 32,030 ''koku'', and was granted the privilege of the use of the clan name [[Matsudaira clan|Matsudaira]]. He became ''[[soba yonin|soba yônin]]'' under [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] in [[1688]], and was visited directly at his home by the Shogun on numerous occasions, beginning with a visit on [[1691]]/3/22.<ref>Cecilia Segawa Seigle, “Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and the Formation of Edo Castle Rituals of Giving,” in Martha Chaiklin (ed.), ''Mediated by Gifts: Politics and Society in Japan 1350-1850'', Brill (2017), 131.</ref>

Previously known as Fusayasu and Yasuakira, he was born into a samurai family, and was initially a mere page (''[[kosho|koshô]]'') within the shogunate, with a [[stipend]] of 150 ''[[koku]]''. However, at some point, he became a personal favorite of [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]], and was promoted to a fief of 32,030 ''koku'', and was granted the privilege of the use of the clan name [[Matsudaira clan|Matsudaira]]. He became ''[[soba yonin|soba yônin]]'' under [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] in [[1688]], and was visited directly at his home by the Shogun on nearly sixty occasions, beginning with a visit on [[1691]]/3/22.<ref name=chaiklin>Cecilia Segawa Seigle, “Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and the Formation of Edo Castle Rituals of Giving,” in Martha Chaiklin (ed.), ''Mediated by Gifts: Politics and Society in Japan 1350-1850'', Brill (2017), 131-133.</ref>

Yoshiyasu became lord of the 150,000 ''[[koku]]'' domain of [[Kofu han|Kôfu]] in [[1704]], and then ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' and ''Tairô'' in 1706, serving in that position until 1709.

Yoshiyasu became lord of the 150,000 ''[[koku]]'' domain of [[Kofu han|Kôfu]] in [[1704]], and then ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' and ''Tairô'' in 1706, serving in that position until 1709. At the peak of his status, he claimed a fief of some 228,765 ''koku''.<ref name=chaiklin/>

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 [[Eppo|Eppô]] 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 [[Eppo|Eppô]] 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>

Yanagisawa had the [[Rikugien]] gardens in [[Edo]] built sometime around 1699-1706.

Yanagisawa had the [[Rikugien]] gardens in [[Edo]] built sometime around 1699-1706, on land granted him in [[1695]], by Tsunayoshi, for a new mansion.

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