Born at Shido in Sanuki (Kagawa) into a low-ranking samurai family of the Takamatsu domain.
He went to Nagasaki and encountered Dutch learning and culture.
In Edo he studied under the herbalist Tamura Ransui and organized fairs exhibiting medicinal plants and minerals from across Japan.
To be free to pursue his activities he left the domain's service, and was barred from serving any other domain.
He published Butsurui Hinshitsu summarizing the fairs, and under the name Fūrai Sanjin also wrote comic fiction.
He worked to develop mines in Chichibu in Musashi and elsewhere, often without success.
Invited by the Akita domain to advise on mining, he taught Western painting techniques to the retainer Odano Naotake, sparking the Akita school of Dutch-style painting.
After years of work he repaired and restored a broken elekiteru, an electrostatic generator obtained in Nagasaki, astonishing the public.
Through a misunderstanding he wounded people and was thrown in jail.
He died of illness in prison. His friend Sugita Genpaku inscribed on his grave words mourning "an extraordinary man".
Tanuma OkitsuguMaeno RyōtakuIke no TaigaSuzuki HarunobuMotoori NorinagaSugita GenpakuMaruyama ŌkyoUeda Akinari
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.