 Tokugawa Yoshitoshi was born in Tokyo and was the son of Count Tokugawa Atsumori (1856–1924) (head of the Shimizu Tokugawa clan.Through his father, he was the grandnephew of the last Shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu.Although his father had been created a count in the "kazoku" peerage in 1884, he had relinquished the title in 1899, so Yoshitoshi did not inherit his title.