Ki-en

Yanagisawa Kien, originally named Rikyō, was a Japanese painter working in the nanga style during the Edo period. Born in Edo in 1703, he died in Kōriyama in 1758. He matters as one of the representatives of nanga, a current inspired by Chinese models, and for his specialization in painting bamboo.

As a child he lived in Edo, where he developed an interest in painting at the age of nine. He began his training with artists of the Kanō school, then became a disciple of Watanabe Shūseki, who practiced the Nagasaki-e woodcut style. Later he studied nanga painting under Gion Nankai. His contact with Zen monks of the Ōbaku school probably prompted him to study Chinese painting of the Yuan and Ming dynasties and to become familiar with the Mustard Seed Garden Manual.

In 1727, because of inheritance problems, he moved to the family estates at Kōriyama, where he took charge of some of his relatives' financial affairs and stayed until his death. Philosophically he was influenced by the Confucian scholar Ogyū Sorai, who served the Yanagisawa family. Relatively few of his works survive, while copies and forgeries are numerous.