Born in Tokyo, Tadashige Ono was an influential member of the Sosaku Hanga movement, producing prints between circa 1929 and 1971. He attended the Hongo Painting Institute from 1924 through 1927 before joining the proletariat art movement in 1929. A founding member of both Shin Hanga Shudan (1932) and Zokei Hanga Kyokai (1937), he worked at the forefront of modern Japanese printmaking. Tadashige Ono first exhibited with Nihon Hanga Kyokai in 1936, but withdrew when the organization refused his request to extend membership to all of the members of Zokei Hanga Kyokai. He graduated from Hosei University Higher Normal School’s department of Japanese and Chinese languages in 1941 and helped to found the Japan Print Movement Society in 1949. 

Following the close of World War II, his work gained international popularity. Tadashige Ono’s prints appeared in the Tokyo International Print Biennale of 1957 and a Moscow exhibition of modern Japanese prints in 1961. He contributed to contribute to HANGA and Shin Hanga (where he also served as publisher). In addition to his prints, his significant literary contributions concerning woodblock printing span from Chinese prints to modern Japanese printmaking. Tadashige also taught as a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Fine Arts, Aichi University of Fine Arts, Hiroshima University, and Utsunomiya University.