Takeo Ischi: the Japanese yodeller from Bavaria

A Japanese man yodelling in the Bavarian Alps sounds like a joke at first. Takeo Ischi is exactly that: a singer born in Tokyo, living in Germany and practising the yodelling of the Alps for decades. Later, YouTube made him known to a younger audience. This article tells his story and explains why his videos now reach millions of viewers.

Contents 6

From Tokyo to the Alps

Takeo Ischi was born in Tokyo in 1947. After school he studied mechanical engineering because he was expected to take over his father's business. In his spare time he became fascinated by the zither and the hammered dulcimer and taught himself to play them in Tokyo. Using records by the yodeller Franzl Lang, he began teaching himself to yodel at fifteen, and soon got an appearance on Japanese television.

Why yodelling? In Japan the technique was little known in the 1960s, but recordings from the Alps were played on the radio, and the unfamiliar sound fascinated him. Ischi learned by ear, not from sheet music: he listened to Lang's records until he could sing the yodelling passages himself. That self-taught approach still shapes his style, because he phrases differently from singers who grew up in a yodelling school.

In 1973 he went to Germany to study. In a tavern near Zurich he sang for the guests and was hired on the spot. He then sang for his idol Franzl Lang, who took him under his wing.

The breakthrough on German television

Franzl Lang brought him onto the show "Früh übt sich" with Maria Hellwig. That made Ischi known in German-speaking countries as the "yodelling Japanese". Appearances on radio and television followed, and he toured with colleagues from folk music. At Maria Hellwig's "Kuhstall" in Reit im Winkl he became a regular.

His first appearance on German television was not a planned career step but a coincidence: an acquaintance from Switzerland put him in touch with a tourist tavern whose guests recommended him further. Things moved quickly after that, and Ischi realised he could make a living from yodelling. He did not return to Japan; he stayed in Bavaria and learned German with a Bavarian accent.

Ischi was probably the first folk-music artist to shoot a video for his music: in it he works a supermarket till while yodelling, waves pans on a weekly market and throws washing brushes into the crowd. Later he was a brand ambassador for Müller milk and the face of ZDF for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. For his yodelling he received the Hermann-Löns Medal.

Home and family

In 1981 he met Henriette. Three years later he travelled to Japan with her and proposed in an onsen, a hot-spring bath, by yodelling to her. They married in 1985 and have four sons. The family lives in Reit im Winkl in Bavaria.

The chicken that made him world-famous

In the 1980s Ischi recorded "New Bibi-Hendl", a yodelling song about a chicken. The song became a cult hit, and the animal stayed part of his stage persona. After a quieter period he appeared on Stefan Raab's "TV total", which brought him a younger audience.

The next boost came from his music videos online. Some of them have views in the tens of millions, and the figure of the yodelling Japanese gained a new generation of fans who know Alpine music only from memes.

Chicken Attack and the Gregory Brothers

In 2017 he released "Chicken Attack" with the Gregory Brothers, a video in which he turns a chicken into a ninja while singing and drives criminals away. The song passed twenty million views on YouTube. More collaborations followed, such as "Chicken Pig Attack" and "Rat Attack"; "Cow Attack" even got an anime, and cosplayers began dressing as Takeo Ischi.

In 2024 his autobiography "Der jodelnde Japaner" was published. In it he describes his life's mission as nothing less than saving yodelling: thanks to YouTube, he says, he can get young people excited about the art again. He also appeared on "LOL: Last One Laughing" in 2024, contributed the yodelling at the start of Michael Herbig's "Das Kanu des Manitu" in 2025, and performed at the Japan Day in Düsseldorf in 2026.

Why it works

Yodelling is a demanding technique: switching between chest voice and falsetto, moving quickly between syllables and tones, and filling a hall without a microphone. Ischi masters that technique, and that is exactly what makes the joke behind his videos bearable. The combination of foreign origin, serious craft and absurd visual logic is his trademark.

Japan also plays a notable role in this story. In Japan, Alpine music is exotic, and Ischi was seen there both as a curiosity and as an ambassador of yodelling. In Germany, in turn, he was the Japanese yodeller, a double exception that sold well. That double role has stayed stable for decades.

Anyone scrolling through his channels today sees an artist who does not parody the tradition he comes from but translates it into a new environment. The Japan Day in Düsseldorf and the demand for his appearances show that a Bavarian yodeller with a Japanese passport is no longer a contradiction; it is a genre of its own.

For more on Japan beyond music, the site has articles on how to bathe in a Japanese onsen and on fast food in Japan.