Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu
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Yanagisawa's Hanabishi,
the emblem of the Yanagisawa clan
Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu (Japanese: 柳沢 吉保; December 31, 1658 – December 8, 1714) was a Japanese samurai and daimyo of the Edo period.[1] He was an official in the Tokugawa shogunate and a favourite of the fifth shōgun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.[2] His second concubine was Ogimachi Machiko,[3] a writer and scholar from the noble court who wrote monogatari.[4]
Career
[edit]The Yanagisawa house traced descent to the "Kai-Genji," the branch of the Minamoto clan which had been enfeoffed with the province of Kai in the eleventh century.
Yoshiyasu served Tsunayoshi from an early age, becoming his Wakashū and eventually rose to the position of soba yōnin.[citation needed] He was the daimyō of the Kawagoe han, and later of the Kōfu han in Kai Province.[5] This appointment was a signature honour as it has been the fief held by Tsunayoshi before becoming shōgun, and of Ienobu, his heir apparent, as well as having an historic familial connection; he retired in 1709.[6] Having previously been named Yasuakira, he received a kanji from the name of the shōgun, and came to call himself Yoshiyasu.[7] He built Rikugien Garden, a traditional Japanese garden, in 1695. He had an adopted son named Yanagisawa Yoshisato by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi with Yoshiyasu's concubine, Sumeko.[clarification needed]
According to the Sanno gaiki, Yanagisawa was a lover of the shōgun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who was reported to have had many relationships with men, and numerous male favourites.[8][9]
Yanagisawa played a pivotal role in the matter of the forty-seven rōnin.[10]
He was noted for his patronage of a number of scholars, officials, and religious figures, as well as for his own scholarly interests.[11] For instance, he was an early employer and supporter of the influential Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai.[5][1]
Yanagisawa was highly interested in Buddhism, inviting Buddhist monks into his home to teach him.[11] As part of his desire to learn, he studied the Chinese language.[11]
Cultural references
[edit]Yanagisawa is the subject of the diary memoir of his concubine Ōgimachi Machiko (正親町町子, 1675 - 1724), Matsukage no nikki ('In the Shelter of the Pine'), which gives a detailed account of Yoshiyasu's glory during the period 1685-1709. It is modelled on the Eiga Monogatari and written in a style inspired by The Tale of Genji. More than 36 hand-copied manuscripts survive to the present day. An English translation appeared in 2021.
Yanagisawa appears as a character in most of the novels by American mystery writer Laura Joh Rowland set in Genroku-era Japan as the antagonist to the books' main character Sano Ichiro.[citation needed] Rowland's chronology differs from history by having Yanagisawa exiled in disgrace in 1694 and being replaced by Sano as Tsunayoshi's chief advisor, only to return from exile later in the series.[citation needed] Other details of Yanagisawa's life, however, are portrayed fairly accurately, including his relationship to the shōgun.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- 1 2 Clements, Rebekah (2017). "Speaking in Tongues? Daimyo, Zen Monks, and Spoken Chinese in Japan, 1661–1711". The Journal of Asian Studies. 76 (3): 603–626. ISSN 0021-9118.
- ↑ Sato, Yasuko (May 2007). "The Tokugawa Bureaucracy and Urban Crises: A Revival of the Humanist Traditions of China and Japan in Ogyu Sorai's Political Writings". History Compass. 5 (3): 745–762. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00426.x. ISSN 1478-0542.
- ↑ Machiko, Ōgimachi (2021-06-29). In the Shelter of the Pine: A Memoir of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and Tokugawa Japan. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-55316-2.
- ↑ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 1048, p. 1048, at Google Books; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Deprecated link archived 2012-05-24 at archive.today.
- 1 2 Shogimen, Takashi (July 2002). "Marsilius of Padua and Ogyu Sorai: Community and Language in the Political Discourse in Late Medieval Europe and Tokugawa Japan". The Review of Politics. 64 (3): 497–524. doi:10.1017/S0034670500034999. ISSN 1748-6858.
- ↑ Carpenter, John T. (2008). Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680-1860. Asia Society and Japanese Art Society of America. ISBN 978-0-295-98786-6.
- ↑ Takekoshi, Yosaburo (2016-04-01). The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilization of Japan. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-52373-1.
- ↑ Neill, James (2011-10-17). The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies. McFarland. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-7864-6926-0.
- ↑ Murray, Stephen O. (June 2002). Homosexualities. University of Chicago Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-226-55195-1.
- ↑ Tucker, John A. (2019), "Ogyū Sorai and the Forty-Seven Rōnin", in BOOT, W.J.; TAKAYAMA, Daiki (eds.), Tetsugaku Companion to Ogyu Sorai, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 101–122, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-15475-2_13, ISBN 978-3-030-15475-2, retrieved 2026-06-01
- 1 2 3 Clements, Rebekah (2015-03-05). A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-07982-3.
References
[edit]- Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. (1980). Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu: a Reappraisal. Canberra: Australian National University. OCLC 222149819
- Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 48943301
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