Taigen was born the son of a fisherman in the village of Kohama, on the central eastern coast of Japan between Kyoto and Edo. His childhood was not easy, as his father was a drunk and would beat him if the day's fishing was unproductive. Disgusted with his father's 'failed' lifestyle, he resolved to one day move beyond it and leave Kohama, seeing the romanticized life of a samurai as the only way to do so. He remarks at one point that the only good thing about Kohama was its fish dumplings.