柳沢 吉保
Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa was born on 31 December 1658. He went by the common names Chikara and Yataro and in youth by the names Fusayasu and Yasuaki. He was the fifth son of Yanagisawa Yasu- tada, a retainer of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the lord of Tatebayashi in Kozuke.
After his father retired from active service, he was appointed head of the koshogumi, or castle guard. In 1680, when Tokugawa Tsunayoshi became the fifth shogun, Yoshiyasu was taken into the service of the shogunate, being appointed a ko’nando (personal attendant) to the shogun. In 1685 he was given the title of Dewa-no-kami and was thereafter gradually promoted until by 1688 he had reached the status of daimyo with a yearly stipend of 12,030 kohi of rice and held the post of sobayonin, chamberlain to the shogun. It was in Yoshiyasu’s time that the post of sobayonin first became one of great power and authority. In 1694 he became lord of the castle of Kawagoe in the province of Musashi with a stipend of 70,000 kohl. The same year he was made a roju-kaku, assistant councilor of state, and in 1698 became a rojii-joseki, or chief roju.
In 1701 he was given the surname Matsudaira, the former surname of the Tokugawa family, and was allowed to borrow the element yoshi from the personal name of the shogun, being renamed Yoshiyasu; his eldest son Yasusada was at the same time renamed Yoshisato. In 1704 he was relieved of the domain of Kawagoe and enfeoffed instead as lord of Kofu, a domain customarily entrusted to a member of the Tokugawa family, with a stipend of 150,000 koku. The shogun Tsunayoshi from time to time visited the residence of Yoshiyasu, a fact that, along with his brilliant and rapid rise to power, occasioned wide resentment among Yoshiyasu’s contemporaries. He won favor with the shogun through his talent and sagacity, but he wras also fond of learning and took into his service such noted Confucian scholars as Ogyu Sorai and Hosoi Heishu, arranging for them to lecture and debate in the presence of the shogun when the latter was visiting in his home. He also took an interest in the compilation of historical works and sponsored the printing of Chinese historical texts.
He died in 1714 at his country estate, the Rikugien, in the Iiomagome section of Edo. The garden of the latter is still in existence, constituting one of the most outstanding examples of Edo period landscape gardening.
In 1709, with the death of the shogun Tsuna-yoshi, he went into retirement, entering the Buddhist clergy and taking the religious name Hozan.
From the distinguished haiku poet and scholar of Japanese literature Kitamura Kigin he received initiation into the Kokin denju, a body of interpretations concerning the Kokinshu that were handed down in secret and imparted only to persons of special qualification in the art of poetry. He also took a deep interest in Zen doctrine and practice and wras himself an ardent practitioner of Zen training.
