Koichi Kawakita

	Koichi Kawakita
	Koichi Kawakita
Born	December 5, 1942; Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan
Died	December 5, 2014 (aged 72)
Occupation	Director, director of special effects, special effects cinematographer, optical photographer, writer, actor
First work	Gorath (1962)
Notable work	Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Koichi Kawakita (川北紘一, Kawakita Kōichi) was a Japanese director, cinematographer, and optical photographer best known for his work on most of the Heisei era Godzilla films and the first two Rebirth of Mothra films. He also occasionally appeared in cameos in some of Toho's tokusatsu productions. Kawakita passed away on December 5, 2014, his 72nd birthday.^[1]

Selected filmography

Assistant special effects cinematographer

Gorath (1962) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi, Takeshi Miyanishi]
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi, Kenya Mukai, Takeshi Miyanishi]
Matango (1963) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takao Tsurumi]
Atragon (1963) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi, Kenya Mukai, Takeshi Miyanishi]
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi, Kenya Mukai, Takeshi Miyanishi]
Dogora (1964) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi, Takeshi Miyanishi]
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) [with Yoichi Manoda, Tokimaro Karasawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Takao Tsurumi, Takeshi Miyanishi]

Optical photographer

Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) [with Yukio Manoda, Yoshiyuki Tokumasa]
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) [with Yukio Manoda, Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Sadao Iizuka]
The War of the Gargantuas (1966) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Keiichi Ukai, Yutaka Onodera, Yoshikazu Manoda]
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Hiroshi Onoda]
King Kong Escapes (1967) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa]
Son of Godzilla (1967) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Hiroshi Onoda]
Destroy All Monsters (1968) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Yutaka Onodera]
Latitude Zero (1969) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Keeichi Ukai, Takeshi Miyanishi]
All Monsters Attack (1969) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa]
Space Amoeba (1970) [with Yoshiyuki Tokumasa, Takeshi Miyanishi, Yutaka Onodera]
Horror Theater Unbalance (TV 1973)

Assistant director

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) [with Yoshio Tabuchi]
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) [with Shunichi Kobayashi, Eiichi Asada]

Assistant director of special effects

Submersion of Japan (1973) [with Eiichi Asada, Makoto Yasuda, Hideyuki Inoue, Kazuo Yoshida, Fumisuke Okada]

1st assistant director of special effects

Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974)
Conflagration (1975)
The Mighty Peking Man (1977)
The War in Space (1977)

Director of special effects

Ultraman Ace (TV 1972-1973) [episodes 21-22, 25-27, 30-31, 36-37, 40-41]
Zone Fighter (TV 1973) [episodes 3-4, 8, 10, 14-16, 25]
Ultraman Taro (TV 1973-1974) [episodes 6-7]
Submersion of Japan: Television Series (TV 1974-1975) [episodes 4-5, 10, 14-15, 19-20]
Megaloman (TV 1979) [episode 7]
Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981) [episodes 10, 13-14]
Tokyo Earthquake Magnitude 8.1 (1980)
Bye-Bye Jupiter (1984)
Nineteen (1987)
Gunhed (1989)
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
Monster Planet of Godzilla (1994)
Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (1994)
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
Rebirth of Mothra 2 (1997)
The Gransazers (TV 2003-2004)
The Justirisers (TV 2004-2005)
Super Fleet Sazer-X (TV 2005-2006)
Super Fleet Sazer-X the Movie (2005)
Fuhito (2006) [pilot]
Gunbot (TV 2014) [episodes 1-4]^{[note 1]}

Director

Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection (1986)
Monster Planet of Godzilla (1994)
CR Godzilla 3S-T Battle (video game 2006) [cutscenes]
Kawaii! JeNny (TV 2007) [episodes 1-26]
The God of Clay (2011) [with Nobuaki Sugimoto]
Gunhed 2025 (2013)^[2]^[3]

Screenwriter

Gunbot (TV 2014) [episodes 1-4]

Actor

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) as bar patron [uncredited]
Submersion of Japan: Television Series (TV 1974-1975) as man listening to prime minister's speech [episode 23; uncredited]
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) as underground shopping center patron [uncredited]
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) as Rodan [hand puppet; uncredited]
Miraculous Survivals! Narrow Escapes from Death Special (TV 1996-2003) as himself ["Celebrity Special Edition: Godzilla"]
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) as JSDF officer
The Gransazers (TV 2003-2004) as secretary of defense [episode 49; uncredited]
The Justirisers (TV 2004-2005) as office worker [episode 1; uncredited]

Interviewee

The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga (2019)

Gallery

Kawakita with the suits and props for Fire Rodan, Mothra, BabyGodzilla, Super Mechagodzilla, Godzilla and King Ghidorah
Kawakita using the Rodan hand puppet
Kawakita, Roland Emmerich and Patrick Tatopoulos with the DesuGoji
Kawakita's cameo in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Videos

Kawakita plays his younger self in the Godzilla-themed episode of Stories of Narrow Escapes from Death

Trivia

Just before his death in December 2014, Koichi Kawakita acted as a consultant for the PlayStation 3 Godzilla video game.
On November 28, 2015, a special festival was held in Tokyo in honor of Koichi Kawakita. The films Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah were screened at the festival.

External links

Notes

↑ Unlike most of Kawakita's other work, Gunbot consisted primarily of tokusatsu scenes, and its special effects unit was therefore its primary crew. Because of this, Kawakita was credited as "director" while Kazuki Omori, who directed the human scenes, was credited as "main part director."

References

This is a list of references for Koichi Kawakita. 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]

↑ "平成ゴジラ特技監督、川北紘一さん死去".
↑ "1/35 Gunhed 2025 Special Edition w/DVD". HobbyLink Japan by Kotobukiya. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
↑ "ガンヘッド Blu-ray 2枚組". Amazon. 30 March 2022.

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[2] Unlike most of Kawakita's other work, Gunbot consisted primarily of tokusatsu scenes, and its special effects unit was therefore its primary crew. Because of this, Kawakita was credited as "director" while Kazuki Omori, who directed the human scenes, was credited as "main part director."

[1] "平成ゴジラ特技監督、川北紘一さん死去".

[1.2F35-3] "1/35 Gunhed 2025 Special Edition w/DVD". HobbyLink Japan by Kotobukiya. Retrieved 30 March 2022.

[Amazon_Blu-4] "ガンヘッド Blu-ray 2枚組". Amazon. 30 March 2022.

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