After attending Fudosha, Tsunetomo graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He started the magazine Hosun together with Hakutei Ishii and others. In 1914, he went to Europe and sympathized with C_zanne’s style. He returned to Japan the following year. In 1922, he took part in the foundation of Shunyokai. Although he started out as a yoga artist, after returning from Europe, he portrayed the nature in Musashino and lakeside districts in poetic brushstrokes of ink and wash and was praised as “the poet of the plains.”