| Native Name: | 石井 漠 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Birth Date: | 25 December 1886 |
| Birth Place: | Akita, Japan |
| Death Place: | Kanda, Tokyo, Japan |
| Honours: | Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon |
was a Japanese dancer and choreographer. He was a pioneer of modern dance in Japan.
Aspiring to be a composer, Ishii moved to Tokyo in 1909. Through the introduction of Chiyomatsu Nakamura, he became a student of Kosugi Tengai. While residing in Sosen Mishima's house, he gave up a literary career and became an apprentice member of the Imperial Theatre Orchestra in September 1910. However, the violin the Orchestra loaned to him was pawned by Mishima, so he was fired after two months.
After leaving Mishima's house, he joined the opera club as a student and trained under the name Rinrō Ishii. In February 1912, he had his first role, albeit minor, in Kumano. Tamaki Miura praised his voice. Ishii worked in the Imperial Theatre Opera, but was dismissed after opposing the strict guidance of Giovanni Vittorio Rosi.
With the cooperation of Kōsaku Yamada, Ishii turned to creative butoh, separated from his newlywed wife, and practiced at the Tokyo Philharmonic. From June 1916, he appeared under the stage name Baku Ishii. He started "New Theater" with director Kaoru Osanai and composer Kōsaku Yamada.[1] After teaching at the Takarazuka Revue Company, he worked with Yamada and others to launch the dance and poetry movement, opening up a new frontier in Japanese dance. He also became the first dancer in Japan to choreograph and perform a Western-style work.[2]
In 1922, he traveled with his sister-in-law Konami Ishii to Europe and the United States to study contemporary dance. He became a pioneer of modern dance in Japan. In April 1923, Ishii made his debut as a dancer at the Brüthner Saal in Berlin. Learning from Mary Wigman, he performed in Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, and the United States. In 1925, he starred in the German film Ways to Strength and Beauty. He returned to Japan in April of that year. In 1926, Ishii traveled to Korea and performed in Gyeongseong, inspiring the formation of modern dance in the Joseon dynasty from Korean dance. He taught students such as Choi Seung-hee, Cho Taek-won, and Gang Hong-sik.[3]
In 1928, he founded the Baku Ishii Dance Research Institute in Jiyūgaoka.
Ishii was born in Akita Prefecture to a family of sake brewers, and his father was a politician.[4] Composer is his younger brother. Composers Kan Ishii and Maki Ishii are his sons. Ishii died of thyroiditis on January 7, 1962, in Kanda, Tokyo.
In 1955, Ishii became the first recipient of the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon after the reorganization of the honor system.