Eiji Tsuburaya

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Eiji Tsuburaya ( Japanese 円 谷 英 二 , Tsuburaya Eiji ; * July 7, 1901 in Sukagawa , Fukushima Prefecture , Japan as Eiichi Tsumuraya ( 円 谷 英 一 , Tsumuraya Eiichi ); † January 25, 1970 in Itō , Shizuoka Prefecture , Japan) was as responsible for special effects in the production of numerous Japanese science fiction involved films. He was part of the team that made the Godzilla series and is the main creator of Ultraman .

Life

Early years and wartime

He was the eldest son of Isamu and Sei Tsumuraya. His mother died when he was three years old, and his father moved to China to pursue the family business. Eiji was raised by an uncle and his paternal grandmother. After graduating from secondary school, he received permission from his family to take up pilot training at Haneda Airport , which he had to break off because of the school founder's sudden death in 1917.

In 1919 he got his first job in the film industry at a company in Kyoto which later became known as Nikkatsu . In 1925 he was assistant cameraman in a film by Kinugasa Teinosuke . In 1926 he joined the Shochiku Studios in Kyoto and became a full-time cameraman there in 1927. He made his first special effects film , Chohichiro Matsudaira , in 1930. In the same year he married Masano Araki, a practicing Catholic, with whom he had three sons, and converted from his family's Nichiren Buddhism to Catholicism.

The legendary film King Kong from 1933 was a revival for Eiji Tsuburaya. Following his international success with Godzilla in 1954, he said, “I've never forgotten this movie. I said to myself: 'One day I want to make a monster movie like that too.' "

In 1938 he was responsible for special effects in the Toho studio in Tokyo , where he set up his own special effects department in 1939.

During the war ( Second Sino-Japanese War and Second World War ), he shot some propaganda films with special effects for Toho . During the occupation in Japan after World War II, this involvement proved to be a hindrance to job search for some time. With a company he set up (today: Tsuburaya Production), he worked on films for other studios and then returned to Toho in the early 1950s.

Eiji Tsuburaya's grave in Fuchu

Toho careers

As head of the special effects department at Toho, which he founded in 1939, Tsuburaya was the supervisor of around 60 craftsmen, technicians and cameramen. Here, together with director Ishirō Honda and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, he became part of the team that shot the first Godzilla film in 1954 and was referred to as the Golden Trio by the advertising department of the film company . For this film, Tsuburaya received a film award for best technology.

In contrast to the stop-motion technique used by Willis O'Brien for his famous 1933 film " King Kong ", Tsuburaya worked with a man in a rubber suit to create his giant monster effects. This technique is now known as suitmation and is commonly associated with Japanese kaijū films.

After the extraordinary success of Godzilla, Toho had more science fiction films made with new monsters and continued the Godzilla series. The films in which the Golden Trio and the fourth team member, the composer Akira Ifukube , participated were the most successful . Tsuburaya also worked on the special effects for horror films such as The Horror Sneaks Through Tokyo (1958).

Tsuburaya remained loyal to his Toho company until his death in 1970. He died of a heart attack while on vacation in Shizuoka Prefecture .

Filmography (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ August Ragone: Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters: Defending the Earth with Ultraman and Godzilla. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8118-6078-9 .
  2. ↑ 114th birthday of Eiji Tsuburaya
  3. ↑ IMDb: Biography (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tsuburaya, Eiji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 円 谷 英 二 (Japanese); Tsumuraya Eiichi (maiden name); 円 谷 英 一 (Japanese, maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese special effects artist and cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Sukagawa , Fukushima Prefecture , Japan
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1970
Place of death Itō , Shizuoka Prefecture , Japan