In 1959 Tanabe had the opportunity, through a Canada Council grant, to travel to Japan and study Sumi painting (Japanese ink brushwork) with master sumi-e painter Ikuo Hirayama. These studies sparked the production of landscapes which resemble Japanese calligraphy, yet also exhibit references to land forms. The Sumi technique is unforgiving, and while the results of this art form can appear spontaneous, the compositions are carefully devised. As this was Tanabe’s first immersion in Japanese culture, it was also an introspective journey in which he rethought his relationship to the Canadian culture in which he was raised, his artistic influences and the surrounding environment. In some cases, Tanabe’s approach to watercolour landscapes is strongly inflected with the sweeping motion of Sumi painting. At other times, Tanabe applies thin washes of colour that create layers representing grand and ominous West Coast skies. While these works are seen to convey a sense of the romantic sublime, embodying human experience in rugged nature, many of Tanabe’s landscapes appear uninhabited or abandoned, even inhospitable — conditions he attributes to life and its unpredictable, ever-changing circumstances.