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{{Infobox Director
{{Infobox Director
|type1 = Fire
|type1           =Fire
|type2 = Black
|type2           =Black
|header ={{Toho}}{{slash}}{{Tsuburaya}} {{Director}}
|header         ={{Toho}}{{slash}}{{Tsuburaya}} {{Director}}
|image = 3297054060 4dd8ccf51c1.jpg
|image           =3297054060 4dd8ccf51c1.jpg
|name = Eiji Tsuburaya
|name           =Eiji Tsuburaya
|birthday = July 7, 1901
|birthday       =July 10, 1901
|birthplace = Sukagawa, Fukushima, [[Japan]]
|birthplace     =Sukagawa, Fukushima, [[Japan]]
|firstfilm = Monkey Sun (1940)
|firstfilm       =Monkey Sun (1940)
|notablefilm =[[Godzilla (1954 film)|Godzilla (1954)]]
|notablefilm     =[[Godzilla (1954 film)|Godzilla (1954)]]
|imdb =http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0875212/
|imdb           =http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0875212/
|wikipedia =https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Tsuburaya
|wikipedia       =https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Tsuburaya
}}
}}
{{Plagiarized}}
'''Eiji Tsuburaya''' {{Nihongo|円谷 英二|Tsuburaya Eiji}}, born '''Eiichi Tsumuraya''' {{Nihongo|圓谷 英一|Tsumuraya Eiichi}}, was a [[Japan]]ese special effects director, cameraman and producer. Tsuburaya rose to fame primarily due to his work as a cinematographer and special effects director on [[Toho Company Ltd.]]'s {{kaiju}} films during the 1950's and 1960's, when he pioneered the techniques of [[tokusatsu]] and [[suitmation]]. Tsuburaya was one of the creators of [[Godzilla]], who would go on to become Toho's most famous creation and an international icon. In 1963, Tsuburaya founded his own special effects studio, [[Tsuburaya Productions]], which would become known for producing the [[w:c:ultra:Ultra Series|Ultra Series]]. Tsuburaya himself served as a producer for several of the studio's early tokusatsu television series, including ''[[w:c:ultra:Ultra Q|Ultra Q]]'', ''[[w:c:ultra:Ultraman (series)|Ultraman]]'' and ''[[w:c:ultra:Ultraseven (series)|Ultraseven]]''. Toward the end of his life, Tsuburaya continued to receive honorary credit for supervising and directing the special effects in Toho's kaiju films, even though his responsibilities with his own company and eventually his declining health prevented him from actually working on the films. Tsuburaya's understudy [[Teruyoshi Nakano]] would take over as Toho's primary special effects director following Tsuburaya's death of a heart attack on January 25, 1970. Tsuburaya's company, Tsuburaya Productions, continued operating under his family until 2007, when it was acquired by TYO Inc.
'''Eiji Tsuburaya''' {{Nihongo|円谷 英二|Tsuburaya Eiji}} (born on July 7, 1901, died January 25, [[1970]]) was the [[Japan]]ese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, including the [[Godzilla (Franchise)|Godzilla series]]. After his death in 1970, Harou Nakajima never felt the same acting as Godzilla in the early Showa series. In fact, after Tsuburaya's death, the Godzilla films faced commercial failures, when all films produced in special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya were successful in Japan. He is the only Godzilla creator who did not work with Jun Fukuda in the 70s.
{{TOC}}
{{TOC}}
==Early life==
Tsuburaya described his childhood as filled with "mixed emotions." He was the first son of Isamu and Sei Tsuburaya, a Catholic family. His mother died when he was only three. He attended Sugugama-Chori Elementary School beginning in 1908 and graduated in 1916 at the age of 15. About the time he entered elementary school, he took up the hobby of building model airplanes, an interest he would retain for the rest of his life. His love of aviation led him to enroll in flying school at the age of 14. He was a Christian.
==Early career==
His first job in the film industry was as an assistant cinematographer at the Nippon-Tonnenshoku-Katsudo (Kokkatsu) Studios in Kyoto in 1919. After serving as a member of the correspondence staff to the military from 1921 to 1923, he joined Ogasaware Productions. He was head cameraman on ''Hunchback of Enmeiin'' (Enmeiin no semushiotoko), and served as assistant cameraman on Teinosuke Kinugasa's ground-breaking 1925 film, Kurutta Ippeiji (A Page of Madness).
He joined Shochiku Kyoto Studios in 1926 and became full-time cameraman there in 1927. He began using and creating innovative filming techniques during this period, including the first use of a camera crane in Japanese film. In the 1930 film ''Chohichiro Matsudaira'', he created a film illusion by super-imposing an image. Thus began the work for which he would become known-- special effects.
1930 was also the year of his marriage to Masano Araki. Hajime, the first of their three sons, was born a year later. During the 1930s, he moved between a number of studios and became known for his meticulous work. It was during this period that he saw a film that would point towards his future career. After his international success with [[Godzilla (1954 film)|Godzilla]] in 1954, he said, "When I worked for Nikkatsu Studios, [[King Kong]] came to Kyoto and I never forgot that movie. I thought to myself, I will someday make a monster movie like that." <ref>Taylor, Al. "The Man Who Made Godzilla Famous." ''Fantastic Films and Other Imaginative Media'' January 1980, p.19.</ref>
In 1938 he became head of Special Visual Techniques at [[Toho Company Ltd.|Toho Tokyo Studios]], setting up an independent special effects department in 1939. He expanded his technique greatly during this period and earned several awards, but did not stay long at Toho.
During the war years he directed and produced the special effects for a number of propaganda films, including Kaigun Bakugeki-tai (The Naval Bomber Fleet) and Hawai-Marei Oki Kaisen (The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malay). Tsuburaya's work on the latter film was so impressive that General MacArthur's film unit is said to have sold footage of the film to Frank Capra for use in Movietone newsreels as actual footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor.[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035533/trivia]
As Japan tried to abandon militarism after the war, Tsuburaya's wartime association with propaganda films proved a hindrance to his finding work for some time. He went freelance with his own production company until he returned to Toho in 1950.
==Toho years==
As head of Toho's special effects department, he supervised 60 craftsmen, technicians and cameramen. It was here that he became part of the team, along with director [[Ishiro Honda]] and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, that created the [[Godzilla (1954 film)|first Godzilla film]] in [[1954]].
For his work in [[Godzilla (1954 film)|Godzilla]], Tsuburaya won his first Film Technique Award. In contrast to the [[stop motion]] technique most famously used [[Willis O'Brien]] to create the 1933 [[King Kong]], Tsuburaya used a man in a rubber suit to create his giant monster effects. This technique, now most closely associated with Japanese monster movies, has come to be called [[suitmation]]. Through intense lighting and high-speed filming, Tsuburaya was able to add to the realism of the effects by giving them a slightly slower, ponderous weightiness.
The tremendous success of [[Godzilla (Franchise)|Godzilla]] led Toho to produce a series science fiction films, films introducing new monsters, and further films involving the Godzilla character itself. The most critically and popularly successful of these films were those involving the team of Tsuburaya, Honda and Tanaka, along with the fourth member of the Godzilla team, composer [[Akira Ifukube]]. Tsuburaya continued producing the special effects for non-{{tt|kaiju|monster}} films like [[H-Man (Film)|The H-Man]] and The Last War, and won another Japanese Movie Technique Award for his work in the 1957 science-fiction film [[The Mysterians]].
==Tsuburaya Productions==
In [[1963]] Tsuburaya started his own special effects laboratory, and later that year founded Tsuburaya Productions. In 1966 alone, this company aired the first 'monster' series for television, ''Ultra Q'' beginning in January, followed it with the highly popular [[w:c:ultra:Ultraman (series)|Ultraman]] in July, and premiered a comedy-monster series, [[w:c:ultra:Kaiju Booska|Monster Booska]] in November. Ultraman became the first live-action Japanese television series to be exported around the world, and spawned the Ultra Series which continues to this day.
He worked on around 250 films in total.
==Kaiju Filmography==
==Kaiju Filmography==
===Special Effects Director===
===Special Effects Director===
*''[[Godzilla (1954 film)|Godzilla]]'' (1954)
*''[[Invisible Man Appears]]'' (1949) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Godzilla Raids Again]]'' (1955)
*''[[Godzilla (1954 film)|Godzilla]]'' (1954) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Half Human]]'' (1955)
*''[[Invisible Man]]'' (1954) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Rodan (film)|Rodan]]'' (1956)
*''[[Godzilla Raids Again]]'' (1955) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[The Mysterians]]'' (1957)
*''[[Half Human]]'' (1955) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[H-Man (film)|H-Man]]'' (1958)
*''[[Legend of the White Serpent]]'' (1956) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Varan (film)|Varan]]'' (1958)
*''[[Rodan (film)|Rodan]]'' (1956) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Battle in Outer Space]]'' (1959)
*''[[The Mysterians]]'' (1957) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[The Human Vapor]]'' (1960)
*''[[H-Man (film)|H-Man]]'' (1958) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Mothra (film)|Mothra]]'' (1961)
*''[[Varan (film)|Varan]]'' (1958) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[The Last War]]'' (1961)
*''[[The Birth of Japan]]'' (1959) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Gorath (film)|Gorath]]'' (1962)
*''[[Battle in Outer Space]]'' (1959) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[King Kong vs. Godzilla]]'' (1962)
*''[[The Secret of the Telegian]]'' (1960) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Matango (film)|Matango]]'' (1963)
*''[[The Human Vapor]]'' (1960) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Atragon (film)|Atragon]]'' (1963)
*''[[Mothra (film)|Mothra]]'' (1961) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Mothra vs. Godzilla]]'' (1964)
*''[[The Last War]]'' (1961) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Dogora (film)|Dogora]]'' (1964)
*''[[Gorath (film)|Gorath]]'' (1962) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster]]'' (1964)
*''[[King Kong vs. Godzilla]]'' (1962) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Frankenstein vs. Baragon]]'' (1965)
*''[[Matango (film)|Matango]]'' (1963) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Invasion of Astro-Monster]]'' (1965)
*''[[Atragon (film)|Atragon]]'' (1963) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[War of the Gargantuas]]'' (1966)
*''[[Mothra vs. Godzilla]]'' (1964) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Ebirah, Horror of the Deep]]'' (1966) [ceremonial title]
*''[[Dogora (film)|Dogora]]'' (1964) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[King Kong Escapes]]'' (1967)
*''[[Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster]]'' (1964) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Son of Godzilla]]'' (1967) [ceremonial title]
*''[[Frankenstein vs. Baragon]]'' (1965) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Destroy All Monsters]]'' (1968) [ceremonial title]
*''[[Invasion of Astro-Monster]]'' (1965) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[Latitude Zero]]'' (1969)
*''[[War of the Gargantuas]]'' (1966) - Director of Special Effects
*''[[All Monsters Attack]]'' (1969) [ceremonial title]
*''[[Ebirah, Horror of the Deep]]'' (1966) - Visual Effects Supervisor
===Showrunner===
*''[[King Kong Escapes]]'' (1967) - Director of Special Effects
*''Ultra Q'' (TV 1966)
*''[[Son of Godzilla]]'' (1967) - Visual Effects Supervisor
*''Ultraman'' (TV 1966-1967)
*''[[Destroy All Monsters]]'' (1968) - Visual Effects Supervisor
*''Monster Booska'' (TV 1966-1967)
*''[[Latitude Zero]]'' (1969) - Director of Special Effects, Production Manager
*''Ultra Seven'' (TV 1967-1968)
*''[[All Monsters Attack]]'' (1969) - Director of Special Effects [ceremonial title]
*''[[Space Amoeba]]'' (1970) - Visual Effects Supervisor [posthumous; ceremonial title]
===Producer===
*''[[w:c:ultra:Ultra Q|Ultra Q]]'' (TV 1966)
*''[[w:c:ultra:Ultraman (series)|Ultraman]]'' (TV 1966-1967)
*''[[w:c:ultra:Kaiju Booksa|Monster Booska]]'' (TV 1966-1967)
*''[[w:c:ultra:Ultraseven (series)|Ultraseven]]'' (TV 1967-1968)
==External Links==
==External Links==
*[http://www.m-78.jp/ The Official Tsuburaya Productions Webpage]
*[http://www.m-78.jp/ The Official Tsuburaya Productions Webpage]

Revision as of 00:27, 21 January 2017

Template:Infobox Director Eiji Tsuburaya (円谷 英二,   Tsuburaya Eiji), born Eiichi Tsumuraya (圓谷 英一,   Tsumuraya Eiichi), was a Japanese special effects director, cameraman and producer. Tsuburaya rose to fame primarily due to his work as a cinematographer and special effects director on Toho Company Ltd.'s Template:Kaiju films during the 1950's and 1960's, when he pioneered the techniques of tokusatsu and suitmation. Tsuburaya was one of the creators of Godzilla, who would go on to become Toho's most famous creation and an international icon. In 1963, Tsuburaya founded his own special effects studio, Tsuburaya Productions, which would become known for producing the Ultra Series. Tsuburaya himself served as a producer for several of the studio's early tokusatsu television series, including Ultra Q, Ultraman and Ultraseven. Toward the end of his life, Tsuburaya continued to receive honorary credit for supervising and directing the special effects in Toho's kaiju films, even though his responsibilities with his own company and eventually his declining health prevented him from actually working on the films. Tsuburaya's understudy Teruyoshi Nakano would take over as Toho's primary special effects director following Tsuburaya's death of a heart attack on January 25, 1970. Tsuburaya's company, Tsuburaya Productions, continued operating under his family until 2007, when it was acquired by TYO Inc.

Kaiju Filmography

Special Effects Director

Producer

External Links

References

This is a list of references for Eiji Tsuburaya. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

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