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Eiji Tsuburaya

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Eiji Tsuburaya
Eiji Tsuburaya on the set of The Three Treasures (1959)
Born July 7, 1901[a]
Sukagawa, Fukushima, Japan
Died January 25, 1970 (aged 68)
Ito, Shizuoka, Japan[3]
Occupation Director of special effects
First work The Hunchback of Enmeiin (1925)
Notable work Godzilla (1954)
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“
My heart and mind are as they were when I was a child. Then I loved to play with toys and to read stories of magic. I still do. My wish is only to make life happier and more beautiful for those who will go and see my films of fantasy.
„ 

— Eiji Tsuburaya in Caper Magazine, 1962[4]

Eiji Tsuburaya (円谷 英二,   Tsuburaya Eiji), born Eiichi Tsumuraya (圓谷 英一,   Tsumuraya Eiichi), was a Japanese special effects director and cameraman. Tsuburaya rose to fame primarily due to his work on Toho's war, kaiju, and science fiction films between the 1940s and 60s, when he pioneered various tokusatsu (special effects) techniques such as 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 supervisor for several of the studio's early tokusatsu television series, including Ultra Q, Ultraman and Ultraseven. Toward the end of his life, Tsuburaya received honorary credit for directing or supervising the special effects on some of Toho's kaiju films, even though his responsibilities with his own company and later declining health limited his involvement. Tsuburaya's duties at Toho would be taken up by his understudies Sadamasa Arikawa and Teruyoshi Nakano following his death of a heart attack on January 25, 1970.[3] Tsuburaya Productions continued operating under his family until 2007, when it was acquired by TYO Inc. On January 11, 2019, the Eiji Tsuburaya Museum opened in his hometown of Sukagawa, commemorating his life and films.[5]

Selected filmography

Director of special effects

Supervisor

Special effects supervisor

Miscellaneous

Bibliography

Family tree

Sei TsumurayaIsamu Tsumuraya
Shuzaburo ArakiMasano TsuburayaEiji Tsuburaya
Noboru TsuburayaHajime TsuburayaAkira Tsuburaya
Kazuo TsuburayaMasahiro TsuburayaHideaki TsuburayaYuko Tsuburaya
Hiroshi TsuburayaHitomi Tsuburaya



Gallery

Production

Merchandise

Toys

Miscellaneous

Videos

Eiji Tsuburaya in "The Father of Ultra Q,"
a documentary directed by Akio Jissoji

Trivia

  • Tsuburaya appears as a character in episode 49 of Ultraman Tiga, "The Ultra Star", played by Yusuke Takita. Bin Furuya, the original Ultraman suit actor, portrays a character based on him in Nezura 1964.
  • Dr. Ishiro Serizawa's costume from his first scene in Godzilla is a reference to Tsuburaya's typical work outfit.[8] Godzilla-kun also wears this outfit in the first special episode of Godziban, "Film the Dream!"
  • After making his special effects directing debut on Princess Kaguya, Tsuburaya dreamed of creating another adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. He attempted to create a film adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter in 1962, but abandoned it in favor of directing the special effects for King Kong vs. Godzilla[9] and returned to write a draft of the script for the project while recovering from collapsing due to his unstable angina in his Ukiyama villa on the Izu Peninsula.[2] However, when he passed away on January 25, 1970, the project was abandoned; his son Hajime attempted to fulfill his father's desire after his death[10] and got Hiroyasu Yamaura to write a screenplay in his honor (although this was cancelled after Hajime passed away on the day that Yoshiyuki Kuroda was scheduled to begin directing the film).[11] Likewise, Tomoyuki Tanaka also wished to produce a movie adaption of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and later created Princess from the Moon in 1987, which featured effects by Teruyoshi Nakano.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ While Eiji Tsuburaya's family registry says that he was born on July 10,[1] he, his family, and Tsuburaya Productions give his birthdate as July 7.[2] The latter date has special significance, as it is the high day of the Japanese star festival Tanabata. Still other sources give a birthdate of July 5.
  2. ↑ Individually crediting special effects staff did not become consistent in Toho's movies until The Mysterians (1957); Tsuburaya was simply credited for "special technology" alongside Akira Watanabe, Hiroshi Mukoyama, and Kuichiro Kishida.
  3. ↑ Credited as "special effects advisor," though the poster and other promotional materials call him special effects director.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Credited for "special technology" alongside Akira Watanabe, Masao Shirota, and Hiroshi Mukoyama; see the second note.

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]

  1. ↑ "すかがわ市M78光の町". Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Founder - Eiji Tsuburaya". Tsuburaya Productions. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ragone 2014, p. 175.
  4. ↑ Ryfle 1998, p. 47.
  5. ↑ Holland, Edward L. (19 February 2019). "Tribute to Legendary Director Eiji Tsuburaya Opens in Fukushima". SciFi Japan. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019.
  6. ↑ Matsuda 2001, pp. 138-139.
  7. ↑ Ishibashi, Harumi (22 October 2013). '60s Showa Special Effects Heroes Revived. ‎Cosmic Publishing. ISBN 978-4774758534.
  8. ↑ Legendary (9 April 2020). "The costume for @Watanabe in this scene is based on Eiji Tsuburaya's outfits (the special effects director on the early Godzilla films). #MonsterverseWatchalong". Twitter.
  9. ↑ Ichikawa 1996, pp. 48–53.
  10. ↑ Yamaura 1972, preface.
  11. ↑ Shiraishi 2006, p. 299.

Bibliography

Staff members
 
Directors
Drama directors
Adam Wingard • Daisuke Sato • Ernest Schoedsack • Eugène Lourié • Gareth Edwards • Hideaki Anno • Hirochika Muraishi • Hiroto Yokokawa • Hiroyuki Seshita • Ishiro Honda • John Guillermin • Jordan Vogt-Roberts • Jun Fukuda • Kazuhiro Nakagawa • Kazuki Omori • Kensho Yamashita • Kimiyoshi Yasuda • Kiyotaka Taguchi‎‎ • Kobun Shizuno • Koji Hashimoto • Kunio Miyoshi • Masaaki Hisamatsu • Masaaki Tezuka • Masaji Nonagase • Merian C. Cooper • Michael Dougherty • Minoru Kawasaki • Motoyoshi Oda • Noriaki Yuasa • Okihiro Yoneda • Peter Jackson • Roland Emmerich • Ryuhei Kitamura • Ryuichi Ichino • Shinji Higuchi • Shinpei Hayashiya • Shizuo Nakajima • Shusuke Kaneko • Takao Okawara • Takashi Miike • Takashi Yamazaki • Takeshi Yagi • Takuya Uenishi • Tomoo Haraguchi • Tokuzo Tanaka • Willis O'Brien • Yoshikazu Ishii • Yoshimitsu Banno • Yusuke Ishida
Effects directors
Assistant directors
 
Artists
Production designers
Illustrators
Propmakers

 
 
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