[2] Tsubaki received extensive education in writing, teaching, and theatrical practices prior to his long-term career at the University of Kansas, a three-decade residency that spanned the years 1968-2000.
Tsubaki was most well-known for his pedagogy of Noh, Kyōgen, and Kabuki theatre and scholarly publications and reviews.
After teaching high school in Japan, Tsubaki traveled to Saskatoon, Canada supported by a grant from the University of Saskatchewan, where he obtained a Canadian postgraduate diploma in theatre from 1958-59.
[3] Tsubaki was one of the founding members of an organization that originally was titled the Afro-Asian Theatre Project in 1965, alongside scholars Farley Richmond and James Rodger Brandon.
In 1979, Tsubaki also co-wrote new by-laws and co-published a report with Sears Eldredge that stated secret ballots were to be required for voting in new officers.