Takeo Ishii

Biography

Takeo Ishii (石井 健雄, Ishii Takeo; born March 3, 1947), Germanized as Ischi, is a Japanese yodeler active in Germany.

Biography

Ischi was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. In high school, he was a loner, but it was during this time that he first heard yodeling on the radio. Following his father, Ischi went to university for mechanical engineering. In his spare time he became engrossed with the zither and the hammered dulcimer, and learned to play these instruments. Using Franzl Lang's records, he taught himself to yodel, and began performing on Japanese television. During a six-month period where he studied abroad in Germany, Ischi went to Switzerland, where he sang at a beer hall in Zurich. He soon started earning money from this. From there he sang in front of Franzl Lang (The Jodlerkönig), his idol, and Lang took him under his wing. He performed on television with Maria Hellwig, and after that became known in German language circles as the "Japanese yodeler".
Ischi met his wife Henriette in 1981 and proposed to her three years later at an onsen (hot spring) in Japan, where he yodeled his proposal to her. They married in 1985 and had five children, four sons named Maximilian, Michael, Andreas and Lukas, and one daughter named Julia. They settled in Reit im Winkl in Bavaria, Germany.
A collaboration with The Gregory Brothers, "Chicken Attack", was released on January 25, 2017, and has received over 20 million views on YouTube. In 2019, a cover featuring the Taiwanese metal band Chthonic was released.
Ischi collaborated with The Gregory Brothers again for a series that was released on January 17, 2020. The first song in their series is "Chicken Pig Attack", with more songs promised in the future. The next song in their series, "Rat Attack", was released on January 24, 2020, followed by "Cow Attack" on January 28, 2022.
In 2021, he had a guest appearance in Belgian reality TV series The Mole.