He attended Gakushuin, just like other children from his class (kazoku), where he spent most of his time reading books about explorers such as Henry Stanley and Roald Amundsen.

He set up the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Hosa Library in the 1930s to permanently preserve and exhibit the family artefacts.

In that position he supported reform of the House of Peers and opposed the Peace Preservation Law in 1925, but he had little influence.

"[5] During the Second World War, he went to what was now Japanese-occupied Malaya as a military advisor, where he served as the director at what is now the National Museum of Singapore.

The English botanist E. J. H. Corner, who was asked to continue serving as the director of the Singapore Botanical Gardens during the occupation, wrote about the marquess's activities in his memoir "The MARQUIS - A Tale of Syonan-to".