Born in what is now Shinjuku, Tokyo. One of the pioneers of the sosaku hanga (creative print) movement, and highly regarded for the boldness with which he founded abstract painting in Japan. His friendship with Takehisa Yumeji began in 1909, and in 1910 he entered the preparatory course of the Tokyo Fine Arts School. He took up book design before he worked as a printmaker, and after the war he opened new ground again by bringing in new print techniques; he designed some 600 books across a wide range of fields. Tsukuhae, the magazine of woodblock prints and poems he made with Tanaka Kyokichi and Fujimori Shizuo, ended about a year after Tanaka’s death, but it left a deep mark on the history of the print in Japan. He took part in founding the Japan Creative Print Association in 1918, and the Japan Print Association in 1931. Among his best-known works is the series Lyric. He also designed Hagiwara Sakutaro’s Howling at the Moon and the collected works of Kitahara Hakushu, and wrote books including The Art of the Book.