Born in 1592 as the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tadateru was granted the Takada domain in Echigo in 1610 after the dismissal of Hori Tadatoshi. He had been betrothed in 1598 to Date Masamune's daughter Iroha-hime and formally married her in 1606. In 1614, as part of a nationwide labor mobilization (tenka bushin), construction of Takada Castle began with his father-in-law Date Masamune serving as chief construction magistrate; thirteen neighboring daimyo, including Uesugi Kagekatsu and Maeda Toshitsune, were mobilized to assist, and the castle was completed in under four months, from groundbreaking on March 15 to completion in early July. During the Osaka Campaign that same year, backed by Masamune, he served as commander of the Yamato-front forces. However, on grounds of violating military discipline (including cutting down an ally's retainer and leaving his post without permission), he was stripped of his domain by his half-brother, Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada, immediately after Ieyasu's death in 1616, and exiled to Ise Asama. He later moved to Hida Takayama, and from 1626 lived out his life in confinement at Suwa in Shinano, dying in 1683 at age 92.

A capable warrior with a fierce temperament prone to acting on his own initiative. His relationship with Shogun Hidetada was poor, and his fortunes darkened abruptly the moment he lost his father's protection.

Takada Castle, which Tadateru built, had no main keep but featured a triple turret instead, and its grounds survive today as Takada Park, beloved by citizens and ranked among Japan's three great night-cherry-blossom viewing spots. Tadateru himself remained in exile for 67 years after his dismissal, and his extraordinary life has been passed down as the story of a "tragic prince."