He was known as an intelligent ruler, and worked for the restoration of the domain's finances during the political and agricultural crisis of the Tenpō era.

Yukitsugu brought in the noted Confucian scholar Satō Issai as an advisor and attempted to continue implementation many of the reforms initiated by Tsugaru Nobuakira to restore prosperity to the disaster-prone domain, expanding on Nobuakira’s code of ethics from five articles to thirty in an attempt to rein in his unruly retainers.

In addition to expanding the domain's agricultural land through opening of new paddy fields, Yukitsugu also established a foundry for the casting of cannons, and attempted to modernize the domain's military and medical levels through the introduction of rangaku studies.

In 1855, the domain was ordered to assist in the defences of Ezo, and established a military outpost of what the now the city of Wakkanai.

In 1859 Yukitsugu turned the reign over to his adopted son, Tsugaru Tsuguakira, and retired to pursue studies in literature and waka poetry.