Kamo Shrine
Mabuchi was born in 1697 in the village of Iba in Tōtōmi Province (currently part of the city of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, as the third son of Okabe Masanobu. The Okabe were hereditary "kannushi" of Kamo Shrine in Kyoto, but his father was from a cadet branch of the clan and was a farmer. In 1707, he began training under Sugiura Kuniakira, a "kokugaku" scholar with a private academy in Hamamatsu and a disciple of Kada no Azumamaro. Mabuchi married in 1723, but his wife died the following year. At the age of 37, Mabuchi moved to Kyoto to study directly under Kada no Azumamaro. Following the master's death in 1736, Mabuchi moved to Edo in 1738 where he taught "kokugaku". In 1746, he was hired by Tokugawa Munetake, the head of the Tayasu branch of the Tokugawa clan.