Tōyama Tsunakage served as a bushō during the Sengoku period.  He was a retainer of the Gohōjō clan and served as the head of the Musashi-Tōyama clan.

Around 1513, Tsunakage was born as the son of Tōyama Naokage, a senior retainer of the Hōjō clan.  He may have been the eldest son.  He received one of the characters from the name of his lord, Hōjō Ujitsuna, and adopted the name of Tsunakage.

Tsunakage was one of the heads of the Edo group and had a fief of approximately 963 kan with landholdings in the township of Sobi and Matsuda in western Sagami and the township of Kaneme in central Sagami.  Together with a disparate landholding in the Katsushika District of Musashi amounting to a total of 1,242 kan.

In 1533, after the death of his father, he inherited the headship of the clan and succeeded his father in the role of chamberlain of Edo Castle.  Three individuals served as chamberlains of Edo Castle including the Tominaga clan in the main citadel, the Tōyama in the secondary citadel, and the Ōta clan in the outermost citadel of the castle.  As a result, the Tominaga may be regarded as the head chamberlains, but historical materials from the same period place emphasis on role of the Tōyama as the chamberlains of the castle.

In 1544, he called a renga poet named Sōboku and hosted a renga event.  At the time, the Kantō was countryside and far removed from the cultural and political center of Kyōto.  The holding of this event in the Kantō highlights the elevated status of Tsunakage within the Hōjō family along with his knowledge of cultural pursuits.  In 1558, while visiting Ashikaga Yoshiuji, the Koga kubō, in Odawara Castle, Tsunakage participated in the event as one of five veterans of the Hōjō clan, including Matsuda Morihide (the father of Matsuda Norihide), Kasahara Tsunanobu, Shimizu Yasuhide, and Ishimaki Iesada).  Around this time, Tsunakage was awarded Kasai Castle to the east of Edo Castle.

In 1564, Ōta Yasusuke, a son-in-law and one of the chamberlains of Edo Castle, separated from the clan.  The Satomi clan of Awa Province deployed upon request of Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province to come to the support of the Ōta, triggering the Second Battle of Kōnodai.  Having failed to anticipate the abandonment by his son-in-law, Tsunakage, together with Tominaga Naokatsu (of a similar status as a chamberlain of Edo Castle), he significantly preceded the main division led by Hōjō Tsunanari and traversed the Edo River.  A counterattack by the Satomi forces resulted in the deaths of Tsunakage ad his eldest son and designated heir, Tōyama Hayato-no-suke, along with his son-in-law, Toneri Tsunetada.

Owing to the deaths of Tsunakage and his eldest son and designated heir, Tōyama Hayato-no-suke, Tsunakage’s third son (later known as Tōyama Masakage) left the priesthood to return to secular life and succeed his father as the head of the clan.

After Tsunakage’s younger brother, Tōyama Yasumitsu and his son, Tōyama Yasuhide, accompanied Uesugi Kagetora to head toward Echigo Province, they were murdered during the Otate Conflict – a succession struggle in the Uesugi clan following the death of Uesugi Kenshin.

After the death of Toneri Tsunetada at the Second Battle of Kōnodai, his widow (Tsunakage’s daughter) took their eldest son, Yūmaru, remarried with Daidōji Masashige, and bore four sons.  Yūmaru became an adopted son with the name of Daidōji Naohide.  Masashige’s fourth son, Daidōji Naotsugu, temporarily adopted the name of Tōyama Chōemon but, after being appointed as a hatamoto, or direct retainer, of the Edo bakufu with holdings of 1,000 koku, reverted to the Daidōji surname.