Kitano Tsunetomi was born in Kanazawa in 1880 under the name Kitano Tomitaro. In 1892, he was sent to Osaka as an apprentice in the workshop of Nishida Suketaro, a preparer of "hanshita-e", the preparatory drawings before the engraving of the wooden blocks for the prints. He also learned Japanese-style painting and block engraving from several artists and teachers. In 1897 he joined the Hokkoku Shinpo newspaper as an engraver and illustrator of serial novels. In 1901 he returned to Osaka and entered the studio of Inano Toshitsune, a minor artist who had been a pupil of the great Taiso Yoshitoshi. He changed his name, adopting "tsune" from his teacher's name.

He started working in an Osaka newspaper to have a fixed income and made paintings of beautiful women in a style intermediate between ukiyo-e and traditional painting. He exhibited his works in official salons from 1910 and participated in the creation of the Taisho Arts Society in 1912. In 1915 he founded the Osaka Arts Society where he exhibited regularly. In 1917 he was elected to the Institute of Japanese Fine Arts.

In 1924 he founded an art school in Osaka where he taught painting. Among his students, we must mention Kotani Chigusa (1890-1945), Shima Seien (1892-1970) and Oda Tomiya (1896-1990). He also founded the Editions Hakuyodo which published his works as well as those of his students.