He represented the Tokugawa shogunate at the courts of several European powers during the final days of Bakumatsu period Japan.

The same year, he was sent to Kyoto as a figurehead representative of Mito Domain, due to the illness (and death in 1864) of his elder half brother Matsudaira Akikuni.

In late 1866, aged only 14 years, Tokugawa Akitake was designated as special emissary to France and led the Japanese delegation to the 1867 World Fair in Paris, where Japan had a pavilion [1] Shibusawa Eiichi was appointed to accountant and secretary for Tokugawa Akitake in 1866 and assigned to join the delegation to Paris.

[3] [4] The fair aroused considerable interest in Europe, and allowed many visitors to come in contact with Japanese art and techniques for the first time.

[6][7] With Leopold II of Belgium, he inspected troops wearing a traditional Japanese battle surcoat which was photographed at that occasion.

He made a final tour of France, visiting Normandy, the Loire river valley and Nantes, and on his return to Paris, received another letter from the Meiji government advising of the death of his half-brother Tokugawa Yoshiatsu and ordering him to assume the post of daimyō to assure the stability of Mito Domain.

Takesada was made a viscount (shishaku) under the kazoku peerage system in 1892 and founded the separate Matsudo Tokugawa line.