His father was one of the most important members of the
Yanagisawa clan, with princely seat at
Kōriyama Castle. As a child, he lived in Edo and developed an interest in painting at the age of nine. He began his training with artists of the
Kanō school, but became a disciple of , who practiced the
Nagasaki-e style of
woodcut art. Later, he studied nanga painting under the direction of
Gion Nankai. He also became a follower of the Zen monks of the
Ōbaku school of Buddhism, which may have prompted him to study Chinese painting from the
Yuan and
Ming dynasties and familiarize himself with the
Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden. In 1727, due to inheritance problems, he moved to the family estates in Kōriyama, took charge of some of his relatives' financial affairs, and remained there until his death. Philosophically, he was influenced by the
Confucianist scholar,
Ogyū Sorai, who served as a retainer for the Yanagisawas. From the age of fifteen, he was an essayist and is said to have excelled at all sixteen of the subjects that comprised a classical education; including
calligraphy, poetry and the
tea ceremony. He was apparently also trained in
acupuncture. He specialized in painting bamboo. Relatively few of his works have survived, whereas copies and forgeries are numerous. == Sources ==