As a midshipman, he was assigned to the cruiser Tokiwa, which made a long-distance navigational training cruise, visiting Esquimalt and Vancouver in Canada and San Francisco, San Pedro, Honolulu in the United States, Jaluit, Truk, Yap and Angaur in the South Seas Mandate, Hong Kong, and Magong, Keelung and Okinawa in Japan during 1917.

He was promoted to lieutenant commander in December 1928, when he was assigned to serve as Vice Chief Gunnery officer on the battleship Hiei.

On 6 October 1941, Yanagimoto was given command of the aircraft carrier Sōryū, on which he participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor in the opening stages of the Pacific War.

Yanagimoto chose to go down with his ship when Sōryū was sunk by United States Navy aircraft at the Battle of Midway, despite the efforts of his crew to convince him to leave the burning bridge.

[1][2] He was posthumously promoted to the rank of rear admiral and awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class.