Greatly renowned for his exquisite detail and subtle aquatinting, Tanaka Ryohei was a contemporary copper-plate, etcher born in 1933 in Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture. 

Tanaka first studied etching under Professor Furuno Yoshio in 1963 at the age of thirty. The following year, he joined the Kyoto Etchers group and began exhibiting with the Japanese Print Association, Nihon Hanga Kyokai, and CWAJ two years later in 1966. Throughout his career, Tanaka held a number of solo exhibitions at the Yamada Gallery (1967–2019), Yoseido Gallery (1971–1999), and traveling exhibitions in Shanghai and Beijing in 1979. In recognition of his outstanding achievements, he was awarded the Kansai Kokugakai New Talent Prize in 1971–1972. From 1994 until his death in 2019, Tanaka's works were also featured at international events in the United States, Finland, North Africa, and Australia. 

After completing his final etching in 2013, Tanaka Ryohei passed away six years later at the age of eighty-six. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Tanaka did not adhere to traditional woodblock techniques. Rather, he preferred copper-plate etchings, aquatint, and mezzotint as his primary mediums. This allowed him to depict rural Japan, with its expansive rice paddies and thatched-roof huts, in hyper-realistic detail. Similar to shin hanga artist Kawase Hasui, Tanaka traveled extensively to find inspiration for his works and focused on quiet countryscapes rather than human presence.