It would be doing Ishii Tsuruzô a grave injustice to see him as merely the younger brother of Ishii Hakutei. Throughout his long career he excelled in many fields: as a painter, a sculptor and as a woodblock artist. There exists a portrait of him done by Onchi Kôshirô in 1947. But he was also closely involved with Kanae Yamamoto, he was a professor of sculpture at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, a founding member of the Nihon Hanga Kyôkai, and its president since 1944.
He exhibited at the first Nihon Sôsaku-Hanga Kyôkai show in 1919, and was involved with Sôsaku Hanga until his death.
