Ishii Takashi

September 5, 1943: Born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Grew up in Tokyo.

Legal domicile: Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo.

1950:Entered Elementary Scool in Tokyo Metropolitan City

1962: Entered the Faculty of Applied Science of Tokyo University of Science.

1963: Joined the Applied Engineering Research Laboratory of the University of Tokyo （Tokyo Daigaku）as a civil servant technical official.

1965: Subsequently aspired to become a violin-maker and practiced for five years at a studio in Tokyo as a live-in apprentice.

1970: Began living in Cremona, Italy. Entered the Cremona International School of Violin Making in the same year. Was the last student of Pietro Sgarabotto. Francesco Bissolotti and Gio Batta Morassi were teaching assistants at the time.

1975: Certified as a maestro liutaio (master violin-maker)

1984: Showed Prince around Cremona during his visit to Italy.

1985: Invited to Togu Palace in Japan to have conversation over tea and cakes with the Emperor, Empress, and Crown Prince.

September 1989: Completed a seven-year project, begun around 1982, to restore Renaissance instruments. After completion, held lectures, concerts, and other events on the theme of “The violin that Hideyoshi heard” at more than 30 places in Japan and Italy, including the National Arts Festival of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

1993: Met the Emperor and Empress in Milan as a representative of Japanese living in Italy.

1998: Made a viola for the Crown Prince, who still enjoys using it.

2005: Made a violin for Princess Aiko.

Currently Ishii studies and makes original instruments, violins, violas, cellos, and Renaissance instruments and is an expert in the repair of important instruments. He is also active in promoting cultural exchange between Japan and Italy.



Ishii served as assistant director for the NHK　national television dramas Kawa no nagare wa buaiorin no oto (The Flow of a River, The Sound of a Violin; filmed in Cremona), which was awarded the grand prize in the National Arts Festival of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and Andalusia no niji (A Rainbow in Andalusia; filmed in Granada, Spain), and he has directed and coordinated other documentaries and music programs as well.



His publications include Il Liutaio (Convegno, in Italian) and Hideyoshi ga kiita buaiorin (The Violin That Hideyoshi Heard; Sanshin Tosho, in Japanese), as well as the pure gold plated CD 400 nen mae no ongaku to kogakki (Music and Instruments of 400 Years Ago). He has also written many newspaper and magazine articles on such topics as the violin, the Boys’ Mission to Europe in 1582, and Japan-Italy cultural relations, and he has appeared frequently on television and radio.



Ishii’s works are kept at such places as the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture, Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments, and Miyazaki Ito Mancio Memorial Hall, as well as by such individuals as the Crown Princess, Princess Aiko, Masashi Sada, and Count Oakes of the Dutch royal house.

 Ishii does not enter competitions, so he has no prizes.

Ishii non ha premi, in quanto non ha mai voluto partecipare a nessun tipo di concorso.