Born in Mutsu (Miyagi), he later became a retainer of Date Masamune.
Around this time he reportedly joined the Korean campaign with the Date army.
Masamune, hoping for trade with Spanish Mexico, chose Tsunenaga as envoy. With the missionary Sotelo he sailed from Tsukinoura aboard the San Juan Bautista, built in the Sendai domain.
Crossing the Pacific he reached Mexico, then crossed the Atlantic to Spain.
In Madrid he met King Philip III of Spain and was baptized; then in Rome he met Pope Paul V and was granted Roman citizenship.
News of Japan's tightening ban on Christianity spread, and the trade negotiations failed. Tsunenaga lingered long in Spain awaiting an answer.
Via Mexico he reached Manila in the Philippines and waited for a chance to return home.
He returned to Sendai after seven years, but with Christianity now strictly banned in Japan, his labours went unrewarded.
He died about two years after his return. The portrait and other items he brought back survive at the Sendai City Museum as National Treasures.
Tachibana MuneshigeKuroda NagamasaYodo-donoItō MancioUkita HideieYuki HideyasuKobayakawa HideakiToyotomi Hideyori
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.