A late Edo period author (4 July 1767 - 1 December 1848) best known for works such as Nansō Satomi Hakkenden and Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki.

Born as Takizawa Okuni (滝沢興邦), he wrote under the pen name Kyokutei Bakin (曲亭馬琴) which is a pun as the kanji may also be read as Kuruwa de Makoto meaning a man who is truly devoted to the courtesans of the pleasure districts. Later in life he took the first name of Toku (解). Modern scholarship generally refers to him as Takizawa Bakin, a combination of his surname and pen name, or just as Bakin.

Bakin was the third son of a low-ranking samurai family. His father and mother died while he was still young, and, because of the famine and plague that struck Edo after 1780, he alone lived to continue his family name. After much drifting, he relinquished samurai status, married a merchant’s widow, and devoted the next 50 years to writing.