Kanetomo served as Jingi taifu (Senior Assistant Head of the Department of Shinto) and inherited his family's business and scholastic tradition, but later organized the Shinto tradition of his family into a system and wrote 'Shinmei Sangen Godaiden Shinmyo Kyo' (Theory of Shintoism), laying the foundation of Unitarian Shintoism.
初め神祇大副をつとめ、卜部家の家職・家学を継承していたが、次第に家学・神道説を整理し、「神明三元五大伝神妙経」を著して唯一神道の基礎を築いた。