Born in 1555, Ando Naotsugu served Tokugawa Ieyasu from a young age, fighting in numerous battles including the 1570 Battle of Anegawa and the 1575 Battle of Nagashino. At the 1584 Battle of Komaki-Nagakute he distinguished himself by killing the enemy general Ikeda Motosuke. He served as a messenger officer at the 1600 Battle of Sekigahara, and afterward, alongside Honda Masazumi and Naruse Masanari, helped run the shogunate's early administration as one of Ieyasu's closest aides. In 1617 he became lord of Kakegawa Castle in Totomi, and in 1619, when Ieyasu's tenth son Tokugawa Yorinobu entered Wakayama as lord of Kishu domain, Naotsugu was granted 38,000 koku at Tanabe as the domain's attached elder (tsuke-garo) and entered Tanabe Castle. His Ando descendants continued to hold Tanabe Castle until the Meiji Restoration, laying the foundation of the Kishu-Tanabe domain. He died in 1635 at age 81.

Known as one of Ieyasu's most trusted retainers over decades of loyal service, combining battlefield valor with strong administrative ability. His calm judgment as a senior councilor helped stabilize the shogunate's early government.

As lord of Tanabe Castle he laid the foundations of the Kishu-Tanabe domain; his Ando descendants continued as its lords, becoming an independent domain from Kishu after the Meiji Restoration. The stone walls and water gate that survive at the Tanabe Castle ruins are a lasting trace of the Ando rule that began with Naotsugu.