Sukenao was born in Kan'ei 16 (1639) at Takagi in District of Ōmi Province, known by the common name Magotarō or, in other entries, Magodayū, and his dated blades run from 8 (1668) to Genroku 6 (1693), the year he turned fifty-five. The published sources record that he first entered the school of the first-generation Soboro Sukehiro and then perfected his craft under the second, Tsuda no Kami Sukehiro, that he became Sukehiro's brother-in-law and so prefixed the Tsuda surname to his signature, and that after the master died in Tenna 2 (1682) he settled permanently in Osaka as his successor. Through the Enpō years many of his blades are signed Takagi-jū, which the published sources read as a return to his native village once his training was complete. Among the Tsuda pupils his hand stands closest to the master, and the commentary on a from his last years calls it so well made as to be "difficult to tell apart from his master Sukehiro", a work of fully matured technique.
The manner for which Sukenao is known is the , the surging large-wave temper that the published sources say Sukehiro originated and Sukenao faithfully inherited. He opens the edge at the base with a straight , then raises large mixed with and that roll into the wave. Long enter, the is deep, and adheres thickly, with and fine running through and at times a few above the line. The published record describes the usual result in nearly the same words on blade after blade: deep in , well covered in , the bright and clear, and among the works some that approach Sukehiro.
The beneath the wave is a tightly packed in which fine gathers densely and enters, the steel clear. On the finest pieces it tightens almost to . A of his maturity shows exactly this forging under a mixed with , deep in with thick , fine and , and the commentary concludes that "the distinctive features and merits of Sukenao are fully displayed in both and ". The across his work runs straight to a with a small return, at times with at the tip.
Beside the full tōran the published sources name further registers, so that his work is read in more than one face. One is a and , the large standing without rising fully into the wave. Another is a calm or broad , which he handled with skill even as the wave remained his renown. A of Enpō 3, made while he was still at Takagi, is tempered in a broad , and the commentary, granting it is quiet, adds that "it is a dignified work all the same". Of a dated the judges write that besides the wave he "handles a like this one with great skill". His own carving stays to a simple ; on a blade of Jōkyō 3 the and hataboko were cut, as an inscription records, by the carver Nagasaka Yūhōken.
Where his hand parts from the master's, the published sources say so plainly. His tend to be broader in body, and one is called his typical work, "broader than Sukehiro, a dignified shape" with a deep that approaches the master's best. His tōran can carry along the edge and somewhat coarser than Sukehiro's. Two blades recorded in Honma's inventory of the Imperial collection show both sides of this judgment. A of Genroku 3, made at fifty-two, is called a masterpiece of his work that "nearly reaches the level of his master". A of Enpō 5, signed Takagi-jū and inscribed as forged from refined steel, shows that he excelled in as his master did, yet Honma adds that "the quality of its falls far short of the master".
Sukenao is graded Jō-jō by Fujishiro and ranks among the leading names of Osaka . He has no National Treasures and no Important Cultural Properties. His record runs through the modern tiers instead, with four blades at and fifty-nine at , sixty-three across the two tiers, every one of them signed and many of them dated. Provenance is recorded for only a few, among them a from a Matsudaira line and another once owned by a retainer of the Matsumoto domain in Shinano. Most designated work of his standing is held rather than traded, so a signed and dated Sukenao comes to market only from time to time, and a in his full is the more sought when it does: the work of the pupil who came closest to Tsuda Sukehiro.