Oda Kaisen was born in Nagato, present day Shimonseki in Yamaguchi province. No details of his early life are available but Kaisen must have learned something of pictorial design through the family business of textile dying. At the age of twenty-one, in 1806, Kaisen moved to Kyoto where he came in contact with the Nanga style of painting and became a pupil of Matsumura Goshun (1752-1811). After Goshun’s death Kaisen came under the influence of Rai Sanyo and, like Ko Fuyo of the previous generation, he adopted a Chinese style name, O In ( or Wang Ying in Chinese). To improve his painting style he went on a trip to Kyushu with Sanyo to learn from the natural scenery, which he clearly benefitted from in the present painting.