 Serving as Deputy ("shugo-dai") to Fusayoshi, shugo of Echigo Province, Tamekage led his lord's Yamanouchi Uesugi forces to victory against the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi in a series of conflicts from 1500-1505.However, one of a number of "nari-agari mono" (成り上がり者), or "upstarts" of this period, Tamekage sought to usurp his lord, and battled with Uesugi forces a number of times in the first decade of the 16th century.He ultimately laid siege to Uesugi Fusayoshi in 1507, at Matsunoyama in Echigo Province, and Fusayoshi was killed.