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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]]'') to the fourth son of [[Shogun]] [[Tokugawa Iemitsu]], [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]], with a [[stipend]] of 150 ''[[koku]]''. He became one of Tsunayoshi's favorites, and after Tsunayoshi became shogun in [[1680]], he was granted use of the character ''yoshi'' from Tsunayoshi's name, taking on the name Yoshiyasu.
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.
In [[1688]], Tsunayoshi granted Yoshiyasu ''daimyô'' status (with a fief of 32,030 ''koku'') and the position of ''[[soba yonin|soba yônin]]''. He was later [[onari|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> In [[1701]], Tsunayoshi granted Yoshiyasu the privilege of the use of the surname [[Matsudaira clan|Matsudaira]].<ref name=clements605>Clements, 605.</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. At the peak of his status, he claimed a fief of some 228,765 ''koku''.<ref name=chaiklin/> Due to the responsibilities associated with his high-ranking position in the shogunate, however, it is unclear if Yoshiyasu ever in fact traveled to Kôfu.<ref name=clements605/>
Yanagisawa had the [[Rikugien]] gardens in [[Edo]] built sometime around 1699-1706.
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>
His engagement with Chinese language and Zen Buddhism is said to have begun around [[1677]], when at 20 years old he began frequenting the [[Ryuko-ji|Ryûkô-ji]] and other [[Rinzai]] Zen temples in Edo. In [[1692]], he met [[Gaoquan Xingdun]], the fifth abbot of [[Manpuku-ji]]; after this initial meeting, Yoshiyasu regularly received Gaoquan whenever the monk came to Edo, and in [[1695]] Yoshiyasu officially became his disciple.<ref>Clements, 610.</ref> Though Gaoquan died later that same year, Yoshiyasu maintained contacts with subsequent heads of the Manpuku-ji, including especially Yuefeng Daozhang. Yuefeng established the [[Eikei-ji]] in [[Kai province]] in [[1708]] as a personal family temple (''[[bodaiji]]'') for Yoshiyasu, and the following year, after the death of Shogun [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]], Yuefeng conducted the ceremonies in which Yoshiyasu and his wife [[Soshi Sadako]] ([[1661]]-[[1713]]) took the tonsure.<ref>Clements, 610.</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.
He died in [[1714]], and was succeeded as lord of Kôfu by his son [[Yanagisawa Yoshisato]].
==References==
==References==
*Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press (1979), 311n31.
*Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), ''Told Round a Brushwood Fire'', University of Tokyo Press (1979), 311n31.
*Plaques on-site at Rikugien.
*Plaques on-site at Rikugien.
*Rebeckah Clements, "Speaking in Tongues? Daimyo, Zen Monks, and Spoken Chinese in Japan, 1661–1711," ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' Vol. 76, No. 3 (August) 2017: 604-605.
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