He moved to Tokyo and began contributing to Shūōshi's publication, Ashibi ("Staggerbush"), eventually becoming an editor at the magazine.

Eventually, he broke with the Ashibi group and joined the Nihon Bungaku Hokokukai ("Patrotic Association for Japanese Literature").

[1][2][3] Ishida was drafted in 1943 into the Japanese Army and served in a carrier pigeon unit in northern China.

Ishida had two major operations and was hospitalized from 1948 to 1950 and published a collection of five hundred haiku called Shakumyō ("Clinging to Life") about his experience.

[1][2][3] Ishida is often grouped with fellow haiku poets Nakamura Kusatao and Katō Shūson as part of a humanist approach to poetry referred to as ningen tankyūha (人間探求派).