Eiji Tsuburaya

Eiji Tsuburaya ranks alongside Willis H OBrien and Ray Harryhausen as one of the great visionary SFX masters of twentiethcentury fantasy cinema Best remembered as the amazing special effects genius behind the Godzilla series of monster films commencing in 1954 he also contributed effects to a host of other Japanese monster fantasy science fiction drama propaganda films for over four decades Eiji Tsuburaya had a keen interest in the cinema from a young age and legend has it that he acquired a secondhand movie projector when he was only ten years old and pulled it apart and put it back together with relative ease He began work as a cinematographer in Kyoto around 1919 and then enhanced his skills to include camera work throughout the 1920s at which time his eye for detail was in high demand from many studios Around 1938 he became head of Special Visual Techniques at Toho Studios and during the Second World War he was involved in the production of several Japanese propaganda films He went freelance after the war and in 1954 he collaborated with director Ishirô Honda on the monster epic Gojira 1954 aka Godzilla The film was an enormous hit in Japan and additional scenes were filmed with US actor Raymond Burr and then inserted strategically to give the movie western appeal Godzilla King Of The Monsters was then released in the USA to strong box office takings and Godzilla has since appeared in over two dozen films spanning over fifty years becoming a key cult icon of Japanese culture The incredibly talented Tsuburaya went on to be the SFX director behind dozens of Japanese monster science fiction classics including Sora no daikiju Radon 1956 aka Rodan Bijo to ekitai ningen 1958 aka The HMan Densô ningen 1960 aka The Telegian Mosura 1961 aka Mothra Kingu Kongu tai Gojira 1962 aka King Kong versus Godzilla Varan the Unbelievable 1962 Matango 1963 Furankenshutain tai chitei kaiju Baragon 1965 aka Frankenstein Conquers the World and Kaiju soshingeki 1968 aka Destroy All Monsters Tsuburaya had also established his own production company in 1963 Tsuburaya Productions creators of the highly popular Ultraman character and subsequent TV shows and films On January 25 1970 while vacationing in Shizuoka Prefecture Tsuburaya suffered a sudden fatal heart attack His incredible film SFX production company is still active today under the guidance of his grandson Kazuo Tsuburaya