THE FAMILY OPPOSTION 家族の反対

Already excelling beyond his age in painting by the time he was a high school student, Tanaami naturally aspired to enroll in an art university. However, he was met with vehement opposition from his mother as well as the rest of his relatives, whose only concept of artists at the time was that they were "dirty, womanizing, drunken derelicts living in poverty".

In the end he was permitted to attend the college of design at Musashino Art University under the condition that a concentration in design would at least lead him to land a real job. His talents became widely known during his college years, and during his second year, in 1958, he won a special selection award at the Japan Advertising Art Exhibition, held by the authoritative design organization, Japan Advertising Artists Club. After winning the award, he started taking on editorial design jobs for magazines despite still being enrolled full time in school. His first job commissioned was for art direction of the new magazine Mademoiselle. "I knew virtually nothing about design. Or what kind of work it entailed. But I had a feeling that if I passed this chance by, it would never come again."

Upon showing his mother the large sum of money he received as compensation for his work, she grew angry, asking him, "What sort of criminal activity have you gotten yourself into?" After graduating, he took a job at the Advertising Branch of Hakuhodo, but quit after just two years due to receiving far too many independent job offers. After meeting his mentor, Kiyoshi Awazu, he delved into his fascination with design. "When I graduated, I was recommended for membership in the Japan Advertising Artists Club, and I tasted an overwhelming euphoria like I had never felt before. Of course after that even more design work came in, and the allure of design, of dodging through various systems and constraints, had me in its grasp and would not let go."

"There was an allure to the air of excitement they exuded and the life they lived, these artists who had adopted antiart, the polar opposite of commercial arts. It occurred to me that this mode of expression that stripped away every sort of institution and constraint, that this too was indispensable to me."