![]() Godzilla, and Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki (both 1962). Later, he worked on the tremendously successful tokusatsu films: Mothra, The Last War (both 1961), King Kong vs. Three years later, Tsuburaya earned another Japan Technical Award for his effects on the Hiroshi Inagaki's $1 million epic The Three Treasures. In response to recent popular alien invasion science fiction films, Toho assigned Tsuburaya to direct the effects for Honda's big-budget epic The Mysterians (1956) and he won another Japan Technical Award for his work. Two years later, he directed the effects for Shirō Toyoda's The Legend of the White Serpent and Honda's Rodan, with Rodan winning him his second Japan Technical Award. For the latter major critically and commercially successful film, he achieved his first Japan Technical Award for Special Skill and attained international recognition. In 1954, Tsuburaya directed the special effects for Hiroshi Inagaki's jidaigeki epic Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto and Honda's kaiju film Godzilla. In 1950, Tsuburaya returned to Toho and subsequently worked on their films Escape at Dawn (1950), The Lady of Musashino (1951), The Skin of the South, and The Man Who Came to Port (both 1952), Eagle of the Pacific (1953), and Farewell Rabaul (1954), with the latter four being his first collaborations with director Ishirō Honda. ![]() He, therefore, created his own independent effects company and worked on films by other major film companies, including Daiei Film's The Invisible Man Appears (1949), which was Japan's first science fiction film. In 1948, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers purged Tsuburaya from employment at Toho. His efforts, cited as behind its major critical and commercial success, earned him the Technical Research Award from the Japan Motion Picture Cinematographers Association. In 1942, Tsuburaya directed the effects for the Kajirō Yamamoto-directed war epic The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya, which became the highest-grossing Japanese film in history upon its release. Thereafter, in 1938, he was assigned to create effects for The Abe Clan and directed and filmed the unreleased propaganda musical The Song of Major Nanjo two years later, he directed and shot the documentary motion picture entitled The Imperial Way of Japan and shot the war film Navy Bomber Squadron. Tsuburaya transitioned from Kyoto to Tokyo in order to form the newly-established company Toho's special effects division in late 1937. The next year, Tsuburaya made his dramatic directorial debut with the release of Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village and had his breakthrough in effects on Arnold Fanck's The Daughter of the Samurai (released 1937). It was one of Japan's first major productions to feature special effects. Following the completion of photography on this film, he worked as the cinematographer and had his debut as special effects director on Princess Kaguya (1935). His directorial debut was the propaganda documentary film Three Thousand Miles Across the Equator, which he filmed in the Pacific Ocean on the Asama for most of 1935. Popularly known as the "Father of Tokusatsu" for his techniques in special effects, Tsuburaya started his career in the Japanese film industry as a cinematographer for several successful drama and jidaigeki films in the early 1920s. ![]() Tsuburaya on the Miura Peninsula, Kanagawa Prefecture in March 1960Įiji Tsuburaya (1901–1970) was a Japanese special effects director and filmmaker who worked on roughly 250 films throughout his five-decade career. ![]()
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