Ishii school (石井流)
Ishii school is one of the schools of otsuzumi-kata (large hand drum players) in Nohgaku (the art of Noh).
In the Azuchi-Momoyama period, the first head Shozaemon Shigenaga ISHII who was a te-sarugaku (amateur Noh) player established the school in Kyoto under the guidance of master Kyuzaemon HINOKUCHI. In the Edo period, the family of Nihei ISHII and the family of Yaichi received salary from the Kaga Domain and the Owari Domain respectively while residing in Kyoto. Its head family extinguished after the Meiji Restoration since the 10th Issai ISHII, who was called one of three masters of otsuzumi-kata along with Mataki TSUMURA (Kadono school) and Nenchi (然知) SHIMIZU (Takayasu school), had no children. Masaki TANIGUCHI, a disciple, is serving as deputy head at present.
Less than ten players are registered with the Nohgaku Performers' Association, and they are performing mainly in Kyoto and Nagoya. Its characteristics are the use of loose shirabeo (a set of ropes used for Kotsuzumi [a small hand drum], Otsuzumi [a large hand drum] and Shime-daiko [a rope-tuned drum]) and less-grilled leather, and its tone quality is soft. Also, players can produce all four kinds of tones while not putting on yubikawa (fingertip) in principle. Players use a variety of complicated kae no tegumi (a pattern of rhythm).