There were more than a few entrepreneurs who loved the arts throughout the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. But from among them, so exceptional was Shojiro's zeal that "the Ishibashi Collection", the embodiment of his passion for art in the works of art he had assembled over half a century, had achieved considerable world fame.

There is a well-known account about the Ishibashi Collection and its connection with SAKAMOTO Hanjiro.

Sakamoto, who was later to become a great painter had initially taught art to Shojiro at his elementary school. After a period of studies in France, SAKAMOTO returned to Kurume in 1924, where he again met Shojiro, and started associating in earnest with the Ishibashi family. It was about this time that Sakamoto asked Shojiro to establish a museum dedicated to the works of AOKI Shigeru, an artist of great genius from the Meiji period Romanticism from Kurume, and who had died at 28 in poverty, in order to prevent his masterpieces from being dispersed or lost.

Keeping this request in his mind, Shojiro strove to collect AOKI's works. This represented the start of Shojiro's systematic collecting activity that was to result in the Ishibashi Collection.

(Note: AOKI Shigeru and SAKAMOTO Hanjiro were classmates at elementary school and also close friends who had lived together under the same roof for some time.)

In 1927, Shojiro began his collecting activity by collecting the works of WADA Eisaku and OKADA Saburosuke. This collection gradually expanded to include works by AOKI Shigeru, SAKAMOTO Hanjiro, FUJISHIMA Takeji, KURODA Seiki, FUJITA Tsuguharu, YASUI Sotaro and UMEHARA Ryuzaburo. Shojiro's collecting style was such that upon discovering a favored artist, he would proceed to collect the artist's works in a burst of zeal and intensity. Nevertheless, it was not in his nature to aim at the indiscriminate building up of a large collection. He would scrutinize each work of art to ascertain its true value after having conferred with art experts for their unbiased opinion. Shojiro was a discerning collector whose focus was on quality, not quantity.

Shojiro concentrated on collecting foreign works of art around the war era. Before the war broke out, he collected mainly oil paintings by Japanese artists. After the war, deeply concerned that artworks collected and cherished by his predecessors were being whisked out of the country by the Allied Powers, Shojiro embarked on collecting such artworks. He collected with especial fervor, the works of French Impressionist painters, to which he was particularly devoted.

All these collected works of art were kept in a vault at Shojiro's house in Azabu Nagasaka-cho in Tokyo but he would open the door willingly to anyone who wanted to see his collection. Shojiro received many artists, scholars, art connoisseurs and distinguished personalities from overseas, including Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, who viewed his exquisite collection.

Shojiro was known to have said, "art that is of value to the human beings must not be kept in private. I want to open my collection to the public to benefit and inspire hope in a society devastated by the War."

During his travels around America in 1950, Shojiro's numerous visits to many famous museums made him realize the important role that museums held in contributing to the promotion of culture. This came to bear upon his worldview.

And in 1952, he inaugurated the Bridgestone Gallery as a place to showcase permanently the works of art in the Ishibashi Collection. The Bridgestone Gallery, designed by Shigeo Hirata, opened on the second floor of the newly built Bridgestone Building in Kyobashi, Tokyo. As the Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki was the only private gallery in possession of a collection of Western arts at the time in Japan, the opening of the Bridgestone Gallery consequently caused quite a sensation.

Since its opening, numerous famous personalities including H.I.H. the Crown Prince, other imperial family members, and Mr. John D. Rockefeller, have visited the Bridgestone Gallery. Many literary figures have also visited and among these, SANEATSU Mushanokoji, a well-known Japanese novelist, recorded his impression of the gallery in an article in the Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper. The article was entitled, "Appreciating the Works of Art in the Bridgestone Gallery -- a Feast for the Eye" and in it he lavished praises on the Gallery.