As a young child, Ichiyo was raised in a family of moderate means, and she enjoyed reading from the time she was small; she read kusazoshi (illustrated story books) and it is said that she read through "Nanso Satomi Hakkenden" (a story of eight samurai and a princess of the Satomi family in the Nanso region) by Bakin KYOKUTEI when she was seven years old.
少女時代までは中流家庭に育ち、幼少時代から読書を好み草双紙の類いを読み、7歳の時に曲亭馬琴の『南総里見八犬伝』を読破したと伝えられる。