Aoyama, Tsuruko

青山鶴子

Tsuruko is Motoko's older sister and the person currently entrusted with preserving their family's Shinmeiryuu tradition. She is not involved in running the school, having abandoned the life of the sword for marriage, and it is her duty to hand the school over to Motoko's care when the time comes.
Although Motoko has lived in fear of Tsuruko for years, Tsuruko has Motoko's best interests at heart, and her only genuine wish is for her sister to be happy on whatever path she chooses. Unfortunately, she has a habit of trying to kill her sister when she lies to her (such as when she tried to take Motoko back to Kyoto and, to prevent this, Motoko pretended to be engaged to Keitaro) or fails to reveal the full details of a situation (such as when Motoko omitted that she failed the Todai entrance exam).
Like her sister, her sword techniques focus on the destruction of evil, using ki-infused slashes; some of these hurt only evil beings, but mostly she slashes through rocks, people, or larger objects.
In Mahou Sensei Negima!, it was revealed that Tsuruko was the one who taught Setsuna and Tsukuyomi Shinmei-ryu swordsmanship.