He was born in Nara Prefecture to an affluent family.
He followed his father's advice to become an engineer and enrolled at the Yoshino Technical High School.
He continued his education in engineering at Tokyo Industrial Arts High School but later transferred to Nihon University's College of Art to major in film.
[1]: 52 After studying briefly at the Osaka College of Photographic Arts, Tsuda began to work at a photography studio, which like many at the time specialized in portraits.
Tsuda's early works can be characterized with his concern for construction and abstraction in the vein of subjective photography.