Eiji Tsuburaya

"Tsuburaya" and "Master of Monsters" redirect here. For other uses, see Tsuburaya (disambiguation). For the video game, see Master of Monsters (video game).
The native form of this personal name is Tsuburaya Eiji. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Eiji Tsuburaya
円谷 英二
Eiji Tsuburaya on the Miura Peninsula, Kanagawa Prefecture in March 1960
Tsuburaya in 1960
Born
Eiichi Tsumuraya[a]

(1901-07-07)July 7, 1901[b]
Sukagawa, Fukushima, Japan
DiedJanuary 25, 1970(1970-01-25) (aged 68)
Itō, Shizuoka, Japan
Resting placeCatholic Fuchū Cemetery, Fuchū, Tokyo
Alma materTokyo Kanda Electrical Engineering School
Occupations
Years active1919–1969
WorksFull list
TitlePresident of Tsuburaya Productions[8]
Spouse
Masano Araki
​
(m. 1930)​
Children4,[c] including Hajime, Noboru and Akira
Relatives
Military career
AllegianceEmpire of Japan
Service / branchImperial Japanese Army
Years of service1921–1923[10]
Japanese name
Kanji円谷 英二
Kanaつぶらや えいじ
Transcriptions
RomanizationTsuburaya Eiji
WebsiteOfficial website
Signature

Eiji Tsuburaya (Japanese: 円谷 英二, Hepburn: Tsuburaya Eiji, July 7, 1901[b] – January 25, 1970) was a Japanese special effects director, filmmaker, and cinematographer. A co-creator of the Godzilla and Ultraman franchises, he is considered one of the most important and influential figures in the history of cinema. Tsuburaya is known as the "Father of Tokusatsu",[6][d] having pioneered Japan's special effects industry and introduced several technological developments in film productions. In a career spanning five decades, Tsuburaya worked on approximately 250 films—including globally renowned features directed by Ishirō Honda, Hiroshi Inagaki, and Akira Kurosawa—and earned six Japan Technical Awards.

Following a brief stint as an inventor, Tsuburaya was employed by Japanese cinema pioneer Yoshirō Edamasa in 1919 and began his career working as an assistant cinematographer on Edamasa's A Tune of Pity. Thereafter, he worked as an assistant cinematographer on several films, including Teinosuke Kinugasa's A Page of Madness (1926). At the age of thirty-two, Tsuburaya watched King Kong, which greatly influenced him to work in special effects. Tsuburaya completed the first iron shooting crane in October 1934, and an adaptation of the crane is still in use across the globe today. After filming his directorial debut on the cruiser Asama in the Pacific Ocean, he worked on Princess Kaguya (1935), one of Japan's first major films to incorporate special effects. His first majorly successful film in effects, The Daughter of the Samurai (1937), remarkably featured the first full-scale rear projection.

In 1937, Tsuburaya was employed by Toho and established the company's effects department. Tsuburaya directed the effects for The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya in 1942, which became the highest-grossing Japanese film in history upon its release. His elaborate effects were believed to be behind the film's major success, and he won an award for his work from the Japan Motion Picture Cinematographers Association. In 1948, however, Tsuburaya was purged from Toho by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers because of his involvement in propaganda films during World War II. Thus, he founded Tsuburaya Special Technology Laboratory with his eldest son Hajime and worked without credit at major Japanese studios outside Toho, creating effects for films such as Daiei's The Invisible Man Appears (1949), widely regarded as the first Japanese science fiction film.

In 1950, Tsuburaya returned to Toho alongside his effects crew from Tsuburaya Special Technology Laboratory. At age fifty-three, he gained international recognition and won his first Japan Technical Award for Special Skill for directing the effects in Ishirō Honda's kaiju film Godzilla (1954). He served as the effects director for Toho's string of financially successful tokusatsu films that followed, including, Rodan (1956), The Mysterians (1957), The Three Treasures (1959), Mothra, The Last War (both 1961), and King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). In April 1963, Tsuburaya founded Tsuburaya Special Effects Productions; his company would go onto produce the television shows Ultra Q, Ultraman (both 1966), Ultraseven (1967–1968), and Mighty Jack (1968). Ultra Q and Ultraman were extremely successful upon their 1966 broadcast, with Ultra Q making him a household name in Japan and gaining him more attention from the media who dubbed him the "God of Tokusatsu". While he spent his late years working on several Toho films and operating his company, Tsuburaya's health began to decline, and he died in 1970.

  1. ^ Iwabatake 1994, pp. 138–139.
  2. ^ Matsuda 2001, p. 154.
  3. ^ a b Ragone 2014, p. 18.
  4. ^ Matsuda 2001, pp. 14–15.
  5. ^ a b Takeuchi & Yamamoto 2001, p. 324.
  6. ^ a b c "The Founder – Eiji Tsuburaya". Tsuburaya Productions. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "すかがわ市Ｍ７８光の町サポーター" [Sukagawa City M78 Town of Light Supporter]. M78 Town of Light, Sukagawa City (in Japanese). Tsuburaya Productions. Archived from the original on December 30, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  8. ^ Ragone 2014, p. 76.
  9. ^ Ragone 2014, p. 23.
  10. ^ Matsuda 2001, pp. 10–12.
  11. ^ "《特撮の父》―その黎明から開花へ" ["Father of Tokusatsu" – From Dawn to Bloom] (PDF). National Film Archive of Japan (in Japanese). August 17, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  12. ^ Ragone 2014, p. 15.
  13. ^ ""特撮の神様" 円谷英二監督が撮影 「かぐや姫」フィルム発見" ["God of special effects": director Eiji Tsuburaya filmed "Princess Kaguya" film discovered] (in Japanese). NHK. July 7, 2021. Archived from the original on April 22, 2022. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  14. ^ Harrington 1960, p. 488.
  15. ^ Morrison, Donald. "Japan's Master of Monsters". Time.com. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2022.


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