[3][4] Gyokuran was born of a decade long affair between her mother, Yuri, and a high ranking retainer of the ruling Tokugawa shogun.

As a child, she was given the art-name Gyokuran, meaning "Jewel Waves," most likely by her painting teacher Yanagisawa Kien (1707–1758).

[5] Gyokuran began to learn to paint at an early age under famous literati painter Yanagisawa Kien, who was a regular at her mother's teahouse.

[1] "It was exceptionally rare for women in 18th century Japan to be painters," according to Anne d’Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

[8] Work by Gyokuran was included in a pair of linked exhibitions held in Tokyo in 2015, titled "Splendid Japanese Women Artists in the Edo Period" at the Kosetsu Memorial Museum in Tokyo and “Uemura Shoen and Splendid Japanese Women Artists” at the Yamatane Museum of Art.