[1] As a teenager, he travelled to the town of Hagi in Yamaguchi Prefecture,[2] where he studied under Mori Kansai.

[3] In 1899[1] or 1902, Tanaka moved to Tokyo,[4] where he learned from Kawabata Gyokushō [jp].

[3] He signed most of his works Raishō, but also used the art names Toyofumi (豊文) and Yoriaki (頼章).

One of these was Gao Qifeng, a Guangdong-born Chinese artist who had travelled to Japan with his brother Jianfu.

[9] He worked primarily in the nihonga style, drawing on traditional Japanese painting while modernizing it with foreign elements.