Born Tada Tomonosuke in Tokyo (then called Edo), the third son of a noted physician and former devotee of Pure Land Buddhism who had converted to Nichiren Buddhism, Tanaka was placed under the care of the Rev. Kawase Nichiren following the death of his parents in 1870.
However, during this time, Tanaka came to be disillusioned with the sect's leadership, who he considered too passive in their teachings, and in 1879 he abandoned the priesthood and set out to establish himself as a lay preacher of the "true" Nichiren Buddhism.