After his graduation from Nagoya University's Department of Science, he completed his Masters course at Kyoto University, specializing in zoology. With research on the traditional rituals and religion of collector-hunter tribes in Cameroon, conducted from the perspective of a cultural anthropologist and ecologist, he obtained a doctoral degree in science in 2001. In 2003, he became an associate professor in the Faculty of Humanities of Toyama University, and he also began his career as a manga artist, being awarded the Four Seasons Award of Kodansha's Afternoon magazine. In 2006, he began to publish his series nacuN in Monthly Afternoon, while continuing his work at university. While especially concerned with the visualization of letters and the balance between narrative and images, Tsuru aims at creations which unfold the potential of both anthropology and manga.