Childhood to war years: 1901–1945 Childhood and youth (1901–1919) Eiji Tsuburaya was born on July 7, 1901, at a merchant house called Ōtsukaya in
Sukagawa,
Iwase,
Fukushima Prefecture, where his family ran a malted rice business. He was the first son of Isamu Shiraishi and Sei Tsumuraya, with a large extended family. When Tsuburaya was three years old, his mother Sei died of illness at the age of nineteen, shortly after giving birth to her second son. Bereaved by Sei's death, Shiraishi divorced her posthumously and left the family, leaving Tsuburaya in the care of his grandmother Natsu. Through Natsu, Tsuburaya was related to the
Edo period painter
Aōdō Denzen, who brought
copper printing and Western painting to Japan, from whom Tsuburaya considered to have inherited his manual dexterity. His uncle Ichirō, who was Sei's younger brother, as well as Toko Yamazaki's
The Bat Copybook,
Mad Blade Under the Moon, and
Record of the Tragic Swords of the Tenpo Era. Because of the financial success of these films, Tsuburaya started being regarded as one of
Kyoto's leading cinematographers. In 1928, while working on eleven films at Shochiku, Tsuburaya began creating and utilizing new camera operating techniques, including
double-exposure and
slow-motion camerawork. The next year, Tsuburaya constructed his own smaller version of
D. W. Griffith's 140-foot tall
shooting crane: having invented it without the benefit of using blueprints or manuals, the wooden crane allowed Tsuburaya to improve camera movement and was able to be used in and outside the studio. The creation proved to be a success, although it did not guarantee total safety: one day, while Tsuburaya and an assistant were preparing the crane in order to film a scene, the structure collapsed, sending him plummeting to the ground of the studio. A witness of the incident, named Masano Araki, was one of the first people to run to his aid: she visited Tsuburaya daily while he was hospitalized, and the pair formed a relationship shortly thereafter. On February 27, 1930, Tsuburaya married the decade-younger Araki. Their first child,
Hajime, was born on April 23, 1931. In May 1932, Tsuburaya, Akira Mimura, Hiroshi Sakai, Kohei Sugiyama, Masao Tamai, and Tadayuki Yokota established the Japan Cameraman Association, which later coalesced with other companies to become the Nippon Cinematographers Club (now known as the ). Shortly after that, the association would start to hold award ceremonies. In November of that same year, Tsuburaya quit Shochiku and joined
Nikkatsu Futosou Studios. Around the same time, he began using the professional name "Eiji Tsuburaya". In 1933, Tsuburaya saw the American film
King Kong, which inspired him to work on movies featuring special effects. In 1962, Tsuburaya told the
Mainichi Shimbun that he attempted to convince Nikkatsu to "import this technical know-how, but they had little interest in it because, at the time, I was seen as merely a cameraman who worked on Kazuo Hasegawa's historical dramas". He managed to acquire a 35mm print of
King Kong and started to study the film's special effects frame-by-frame, without the advantage of documents explaining how they were produced: he would later write an analysis of the film's effects for the magazine
Photo Times in October 1933. In the same year, Masano gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Miyako. However, the child would die of unknown causes in 1935. In December 1933, Nikkatsu granted Tsuburaya permission to use and study new screen projection technology for the company's
jidaigeki films. However, while the studio agreed with his decision to project these films cast into a location use using location plates, not all of his technological developments were met with approval. While he was filming the final scenes for
Asataro Descends Mt. Akagi in February 1934, Tsuburaya fell out with Nikkatsu's CEO, who had no acquaintance with what Tsuburaya was creating and assumed that he was wasting the company's money. After the argument, Tsuburaya resigned from his job at Nikkatsu.
J.O. Studios, directorial works, and Toho (1934–1940) in 1934. An adaptation of this crane is still used worldwide today. Shortly after leaving Nikkatsu, he accepted an offer from Kyoto entrepreneur Yoshio Osawa to work at his company, J.O. Talkies, and research
optical printing and screen projection. In October 1934, Tsuburaya and his colleagues completed the first iron shooting crane model and used it to shoot Atsuo Tomioka's
The Chorus of a Million. In contrast to his previous prototype, the crane was installed on a truck that operated on tracks, which made it able to change the camera's position in a matter of seconds. In December of that year, Osawa renamed the studio J.O. Studios and designated Tsuburaya as its chief cinematographer. From February to August 1935, he traveled to Hawaii, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand on the cruiser
Asama in order to shoot his directorial debut,
Three Thousand Miles Across the Equator, a feature-length
propaganda documentary film. During the expedition, his second son,
Noboru, was born on May 10, 1935. Upon returning from the voyage, Tsuburaya began work on
Princess Kaguya, an adaptation of the 10th-century Japanese literary tale
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. He did not only serve as the film's cinematographer, but was also in charge of special effects for the first time. For the film, he worked with animator
Kenzō Masaoka to create
miniatures, puppets, a composite of Kaguya emerging from a cut bamboo plant, and a sequence in which a ship encounters a storm. While the original print of the film is considered to be lost, a shortened version, screened in England in 1936, was discovered by a researcher at the
British Film Institute in May 2015: this version was released in Japan on September 4 and 5, 2021, as part of an event celebrating Tsuburaya's 120th birthday. playing the female lead in Tsuburaya's first histrionic film,
Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village. In March of the next year, Tsuburaya's directorial debut, the
theatrical play Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village, was released: it was an adventure film concerning a condemned romance and featuring political tones.
Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village was the second film to ever star popular geisha singer
Ichimaru, while also featuring actor Kenji Susukida. Soon after its completion, Tsuburaya began working on
Arnold Fanck's
The Daughter of the Samurai (released in 1937).
The Daughter of the Samurai was the first German-Japanese co-production, and is considered to be Tsuburaya's first major success as a special effects director, since it featured the first full-scale
rear projection. The German staff were allegedly impressed by his elaborate miniature work on the project. In September 1936,
Ichizō Kobayashi merged the film studios P.C.L. Studios and P.C.L. Film Company with J.O. Studios to create the film and theatre production company
Toho. Film producer was appointed as production manager at Toho: having become aware of the importance of special effects during a tour in
Hollywood, in 1937 Mori hired Tsuburaya at the company's studio in
Tokyo, establishing the special effects department on November 27, 1937, and treating him as the section's manager. Shortly after, Tsuburaya received a research budget and began studying optical printers to create Japan's first version of the device, which he designed. Among Tsuburaya's first film assignments at Toho were
The Abe Clan, a
jidaigeki film directed by
Hisatora Kumagai, and the unreleased propaganda musical
The Song of Major Nango (both 1938). The latter film was directed and shot by Tsuburaya, and he completed it on September 6 of that year. In 1939, he was ordered to join the Kumagaya Aviation Academy of the Imperial Army Corps, where he was entrusted to shoot flight-training films. After impressing his superiors with his aerial photography, Tsuburaya was given more assignments and a master's certificate during his almost three years at the academy. In November 1939, while Tsuburaya was still at the flight school and undertaking assignments at Toho, he was appointed head of Toho's Special Arts Department. A month after that, he was commissioned to shoot a science film for Toho's then-recently assembled educational section. Under governance demands, Toho was mandated to maintain the creation of propaganda films. Accordingly, in May 1940, Tsuburaya began directing the documentary
The Imperial Way of Japan for Toho Education Films' branch, the Toho National Policy Film Association. He was given his first ever credits for special effects for his work on Sotoji Kimura's
Navy Bomber Squadron, which featured a bombing scene with a miniature airplane.
Navy Bomber Squadron was believed to be lost for over sixty years, until an unfinished copy of the film was discovered and screened in 2006. In September 1940,
Yutaka Abe's
The Burning Sky, was released to Japanese cinemas. Tsuburaya was in charge of effects for the film and received his first accolade from the Japan Motion Picture Cinematographers Association. His next undertaking,
Son Gokū, was released on November 6, 1940. During an interview for the August 1960 issue of
American Cinematographer, he broke down the creative process behind
Son Gokū, saying: "I was called upon to create and photograph a
monkey-like monster which was supposed to fly through the air", adding: "I managed the job with some success and this assignment set the pattern for my future work."
War years (1941–1945) '' (1942), which featured an acclaimed depiction of the
Pearl Harbor attack created by Tsuburaya On December 7, 1941, the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service suddenly
attacked the
U.S. naval base at
Pearl Harbor: consequently, the Imperial Japanese Government tasked Toho to produce a propaganda film that would influence the nation to believe they would win the
Pacific War. The resulting film,
Kajirō Yamamoto's
war epic The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya (1942), became the
highest-grossing Japanese film in history upon its release in December 1942 and won
Kinema Junpo's
Best Film Award. Tsuburaya directed its effects, which he created with the assistance of navy-provided photographs of the Pearl Harbor attack: in the process, he also worked with future
Godzilla collaborates
Akira Watanabe and Teizō Toshimitsu for the first time in his career. His work on the film was supposedly one of the main reasons behind its major success and gained him the Technical Research Award from the Japan Motion Picture Cinematographers Association. The film depicted the attack so realistically that footage from it was later featured in documentaries on the Pearl Harbor attack. Around the same time as
The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya was in production, Toho's effects department was filming Japan's first
puppet film,
Ramayana. The film's screenplay—based on the
Sanskrit epic of the same name—had been written by future
Moonlight Mask creator
Kōhan Kawauchi in 1941, under Tsuburaya's supervision.
Occupation years to Chūshingura: 1946–1962 Early postwar work (1946–1954) Even though Toho was unaffected by the Tokyo bombings, as the company was located in Seijo, the amount of film productions was reduced due to the
Occupation of Japan. Because of this, the company produced only eighteen films in 1946, with Tsuburaya working on eight of them. During the same year, Tsuburaya became head of the special effects production department at Toho and established its cinematography, compositing, art, and development units. Since he and his effects unit at the company had a minor slate of films to work on, they also began testing
matte painting and optical printing. Toho was on the verge of disbandment due to the
three major labor disputes that occurred at the studio during the late 1940s. According to Akira Tsuburaya, his father had to sneak around the Japanese police and U.S. tanks deployed during these strikes and disputes in order to get to work. To repel the police, the labor strikers erected a barricade, using a large fan, made by the special effects department of the company, which was equipped with the
Zero fighter engine that Tsuburaya had used during the war. These events led to the creation of
Shintoho; Tsuburaya would create the effects for the studio's first film,
A Thousand and One Nights with Toho (1947). In late March 1948, Tsuburaya was
purged from Toho by the
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers because of his involvement in propaganda films during World War II. The U.S. occupation officials reportedly expelled him assuming he had access to classified documents when creating the comprehensive miniatures featured in
The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya, which led them to inaccurately conclude that he was a spy. Consequently, Toho disbanded their special effects division and Tsuburaya, together with his son Hajime, founded the independent special effects company , an unofficial
juridical entity. Henceforth, he worked at major film studios outside Toho without on-screen credit. '' (1949) were intended to be superior to those in
Universal's
The Invisible Man film series In 1949, five major
Daiei Film productions featuring effects directed by Tsuburaya were released to Japanese theaters:
Japanese horror filmmaker
Bin Kato's
The White Haired Fiend, Keigo Kimura's
Flowers of Raccoon Palace, Kiyohiko Ushihara's
The Rainbow Man,
Akira Nobuchi's
The Ghost Train, and Nobuo Adachi's
The Invisible Man Appears. This last movie was the first successful Japanese science fiction film, as well as the country's first adaption of
H. G. Wells' novel
The Invisible Man. Created by studying the
eponymous 1933 film adaptation of Wells' novel, Daiei had intended this film to be Tsuburaya's full-scale post-war recovery, featuring special effects superior in quality to those in
Universal Pictures'
The Invisible Man film series. Tsuburaya, however, was disappointed with his lack of competence on the project and gave up his ambition to become a Daiei employee after
The Invisible Man Appears was finished. In 1950, Tsuburaya relocated some equipment and employees at Tsuburaya Special Technology Laboratory to Toho's headquarters; his independent company was merely the size of six
tatami mats inside Toho Studios. In the same year, he continued to direct special effects for films from other companies, including
Toyoko Eiga's
anti-war film Listen to the Voices of the Sea. While slowly rebuilding the company's Special Arts Department, he filmed all of the title cards, trailers, and the logo for Toho's films from 1950 to 1954. The first production featuring major contributions by Tsuburaya upon his return to Toho was reportedly a 1950 film directed by
Hiroshi Inagaki and based on the life of Japanese swordsman
Sasaki Kojirō. During this period, Tsuburaya also worked on Toho films such as
Senkichi Taniguchi's anti-war film
Escape at Dawn (1950), directed the effects for Taniguchi's '''', staged miniature ships to depict a battle in Hiroshi Inagaki's '''', and directed the effects for
Kenji Mizoguchi's
The Lady of Musashino. In February 1952, Tsuburaya's exile from public office was officially lifted. That same month, Ishirō Honda's second feature film,
The Skin of the South, was released to Japanese theaters. Tsuburaya directed the film's effects for the typhoon and landslide scenes, which was his first experience acting as the effects director on a film by the future
Godzilla director. Tsuburaya collaborated with Honda and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka on
The Man Who Came to Port later that year: this marked the first time the trio, who are considered the creators of
Godzilla, ever collaborated with one another. During World War II, Toho had begun researching
3D films and completed a 3D film process known as "Tovision". While the project had been abandoned, it was later revived when the 3D film
Bwana Devil (1952) became a box office hit in the United States. Hence, the company produced its first 3D film, future
Godzilla co-writer Takeo Murata's ''
(1953). It features cinematography by Tsuburaya, who shot the short film by using an interlocking camera. After the completion of The Sunday That Jumped Out
, Murata discussed creating a kaiju film about a giant whale attacking Tokyo, which Tsuburaya devised the previous year. Tsuburaya, therefore, resubmitted the conception of this production to producer Iwao Mori. Although this project never materialized, elements of it were included in early drafts of Godzilla'' the following year. Tsuburaya's next project, the war epic
Eagle of the Pacific (1953), was his first significant partnership with Ishirō Honda. As the film featured many effects sequences from
The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya, Tsuburaya used only a small crew to shoot its new effects. Upon its release, the film reportedly became Toho's first post-war production to gross over (). The ensuing year, he and Honda collaborated on another war film,
Farewell Rabaul, released to Japanese theaters in February 1954, to moderate box office success. His effects for this assignment were more advanced than the ones used for
Eagle of the Pacific, since they featured many more of his technological approaches and syntheses. Because of the success of
Eagle of the Pacific and
Farewell Rabaul, Tomoyuki Tanaka believed Tsuburaya should make more
tokusatsu films with Honda. Tsuburaya's next film would become Japan's first global hit and gain him international attention.
International recognition (1954–1959) After failing to renegotiate with the
Indonesian government for the production of
In the Shadow of Glory, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka began to consider creating a giant monster (or
kaiju) film, inspired by
Eugène Lourié's
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and the
Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident. He believed that it would have considerable potential, due to the financial success of previous monster films and the impact of news generating
nuclear fears. As a result, he wrote an outline for the project and pitched it to Iwao Mori. Following Tsuburaya's agreement to create its effects, Mori approved the production, eventually titled
Godzilla, in mid-April 1954; filmmaker Ishirō Honda soon took over the directing duties. During preproduction, Tsuburaya considered using
stop motion to depict the
titular monster but, as stated by special effects crew member Fumio Nakadai, had to employ the "costume method" because he "finally decided it wouldn't work". This technique is now known as "
suitmation". Tsuburaya's special effects department filmed
Godzilla in 71 days from August to late October 1954, on a budget of . He and his crew worked relentlessly, regularly starting at 9:00 a.m., preparing at 5:00 p.m., and finishing the shoot at 4 or 5 a.m. in the following morning. Upon its nationwide release on November 3, Tsuburaya's effects received critical acclaim and the film became a box office hit. As a result,
Godzilla established Toho as the most successful effects company in the world, and Tsuburaya obtained his first Japan Technical Award for his efforts. Instantly after completing
Godzilla in October, Tsuburaya began working on another Toho-produced science fiction film,
The Invisible Avenger, which was released to Japanese theaters in December 1954, under the title
Invisible Man. This
tokusatsu production was directed by Motoyoshi Oda and featured special effects and photography by Tsuburaya. For the movie, he inherited and expanded the technology used in his first film to feature an invisible character,
The Invisible Man Appears (1949). Tsuburaya instructed his crew to portray the title character's invisibility in various ways throughout the film, including optical synthesis, and suggested that the character would disguise his invisibility powers by dressing up as a clown. suit actor
Haruo Nakajima on the set of
Godzilla Raids Again (1955) Due to the enormous box-office success of
Godzilla, Toho quickly gathered the majority of the crew behind the film to create a smaller-budget sequel to the film, entitled
Godzilla Raids Again: Tsuburaya was officially given the title of special effects director for the first time, having always been credited under "special technique" beforehand. Shot in less than three months, the film was released in April 1955. Just a month later, Tsuburaya began directing the effects of
Half Human, his second
kaiju film collaboration with director Ishirō Honda. Among his efforts on this film, the effects director notably created stop-motion animation,
rear-screen miniature, and miniature avalanche sequences. In April 1956,
Godzilla became the first Japanese film to be widely distributed throughout the United States and was later released worldwide, leading Tsuburaya to gain international recognition. However, for its American release, the movie was re-entitled as
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, heavily re-edited, and integrated with new footage featuring Canadian actor
Raymond Burr. Tsuburaya's next major undertaking,
The Legend of the White Serpent, a Hong Kong-Japanese film adaptation of a novel by
Fusao Hayashi based on the Chinese
legend of the White Snake, was Toho's first
tokusatsu production to be completely filmed in
technicolor (via
Eastmancolor). In preparation for the film, which was produced on a then-record budget of , Tsuburaya and his unit spent a month training with color process technology before shooting the effects. After working on
The Legend of the White Serpent, Tsuburaya made the renowned Toho logo, and his unit created the opening credits for most of the company's films. Between working on large-scale Toho films, he also created the effects for
Nippon TV's series
Ninja Arts of Sanada Castle and several theatrical productions for
Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. Toho's next assignment for Tsuburaya was
Rodan, the first
kaiju film ever produced in color. About 60% of
Rodan's budget was spent on Tsuburaya's effects, which included optical animation, matte paintings, and extremely elaborate miniature sets created to be destroyed or flown over by its
namesake monster (played by original
Godzilla suit actor
Haruo Nakajima).
Rodan required a large number of model sets in a variety of sizes, including 1/10, 1/20, 1/25, and 1/30, to be developed and assembled by Tsuburaya's division. The film premiered in Japanese theaters in December 1956 and, upon its release in the United States the following year, earned more at the box office than any previous science fiction film.
Throne of Blood, an adaptation of
William Shakespeare's
Macbeth from renowned filmmaker
Akira Kurosawa, was Tsuburaya's second film release of 1957. Kurosawa cut several scenes by Tsuburaya due to his displeasure with the amount of footage he made for
Throne of Blood. He next served as the special effects director for
The Mysterians, a science fiction epic directed by Ishirō Honda. The first color
CinemaScope film ever directed by the duo,
The Mysterians is often called the "definitive science fiction movie". Tsuburaya won another Japan Technical Award for his widescreen effects in
The Mysterians. A new sub-genre for Toho was born with Tsuburaya's first movie of 1958,
The H-Man, which was the first entry in the "Transforming Human Series". He next directed the effects for Honda's
Varan the Unbelievable, a film about a giant monster awakened in the
Tōhoku mountains that surfaces in
Tokyo Bay. Initially planned as a made-for-television film, co-produced between Toho and the American company
AB-PT Pictures, the production was plagued by numerous difficulties: AB-PT collapsed during production, leading Toho to alter the film's status to a theatrical feature. Tsuburaya's final film released in 1958 was Kurosawa's
The Hidden Fortress. Tsuburaya began 1959 by working on the special effects for
Mighty Atom, a
tokusatsu television series based on
Osamu Tezuka's manga series
Astro Boy. Although neither he nor his company were credited in the show itself when it aired between March 7, 1959, and May 28, 1960, he supervised the miniature photography done by his staff at Tsuburaya Special Technology Laboratory. Around the same time, Tsuburaya also directed the special effects for a storm sequence featured in Honda's
Inao: Story of an Iron Arm, for which he also constructed the miniature for the title character's rowboat. Next, he worked on
Monkey Sun, co-written and directed by Kajirō Yamamoto as an all-star remake of his 1940 film
Son Gokū, a previous entry in the effects director's curriculum. Taking inspiration from watching
soybean paste in the
broth of his wife's
miso soup, Tsuburaya created scenes with storm clouds, as well as smoke and ash erupting from three volcanoes. His effects for
Monkey Sun were described by biographer August Ragone as "comical and surreal". After operating on the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater production
The Story of Bali, he directed the effects for
Shūe Matsubayashi's
Submarine I-57 Will Not Surrender, his first war film in six years. In order to film submarine scenes for the film, a model seabed terrain was built in the first Toho miniature pool (dubbed the "Small Pool" after a bigger stage was completed). He also filmed his effects for a technicolor version of the film, but they were converted to black-and-white for the final version. In August 1959, Tsuburaya, together with his sons Hajime and Noboru, shot footage of two dragon puppets in Tsuburaya's laboratory at their house in
Setagaya, Tokyo for a Hong Kong-based film company. prop on the set of
The Three Treasures (1959) Tsuburaya's following significant production, director Hiroshi Inagaki's big-budget
religious epic
The Three Treasures, was created as Toho's celebratory thousandth film. Based on legends featured in the
Kojiki and
Nihon Shoki, it stars
Toshiro Mifune as
Yamato Takeru and the
kami Susanoo. The effects director and his crew shot several key sequences included in the film, such as a battle between Mifune's character Susanoo and the eight-headed dragon
Yamata no Orochi and an eruption of
Mount Fuji. On
The Three Treasures, Tsuburaya used for the first time the "Toho Versatile Process", an adaptation of Toho's optical printing process that he developed on a budget of for widescreen color films and revealed in May of the same year. The movie earned over , against an initial budget, ranking as Toho's highest-grossing film of the year and their second-highest-grossing film altogether. He won the Japan Technical Award for Special Skill and was presented with the Special Achievement Award at Movie Day. While he was pleased with the success of
The Three Treasures, Tsuburaya became disappointed after seeing a picture of the heads of the Yamata no Orochi prop held up by piano wires in a newspaper article concerning its special effects. Accordingly, he declined an interview with the newspaper because he believed the photograph "broke children's dreams". When the
Space Race erupted between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, Tsuburaya counseled Toho to produce a film about a lunar expedition. Therefore, his next film,
Battle in Outer Space, was a science fiction epic about a group of astronauts who battle extraterrestrials on the surface of the
Moon. Tsuburaya reportedly paid homage to producer
George Pal's
Destination Moon (1950) in the film's Moon landing sequence; he would later meet Pal in
Los Angeles in 1962. Since films featuring his contributions were attaining global popularity and praise for Japanese cinema,
Hearst filmed Tsuburaya directing the effects for
Battle in Outer Space, and he later received the Special Award of Merit at the fourth ceremony prior to its release.
From The Secret of the Telegian to Chūshingura (1960–1962) A smaller-scale science fiction film, entitled
The Secret of the Telegian, which was Toho's second installment in the Transforming Human Series, marked Tsuburaya's first assignment of 1960. He then took on a project of a much larger extent,
Storm Over the Pacific, the first-ever war film in color. His department created notably large miniatures for the film, with a 13-meter long miniature being filmed by Tsuburaya on the
Miura Coast.
Storm Over the Pacific was also Toho's first film to require the use of the "Big Pool", which had been completed in February 1960. The pool would later be used in the production of every
Godzilla film, before being demolished at the end of the filming process for
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).
Storm Over the Pacific obtained critical acclaim upon its release, with numerous of Tsuburaya's effects sequences being later featured in
Midway (1976), a film by
Jack Smight that was also about the Pacific War. Throughout the rest of 1960, Tsuburaya worked on other notable productions, such as the third film in the Transforming Human Series,
The Human Vapor; he also oversaw the creation of an extremely detailed miniature of
Osaka Castle and directed its destruction scene for Hiroshi Inagaki's
jidaigeki film
The Story of Osaka Castle, and then directed the tsunami sequence in the
film adaptation of
Pearl S. Buck's 1948 novel
The Big Wave. for
Mothra's attack scene in
Mothra (1961) In 1961, Tsuburaya directed the effects for
Mothra, another
kaiju film created in collaboration with Ishirō Honda. Allegedly inspired by his own dreams, Tsuburaya created the
eponymous giant, moth-like kaiju, which would go on to become one of the icons of Japanese fantasy cinema, alongside Godzilla and Rodan, and appear in numerous films thereafter. Though the overall budget for
Mothra allowed the effects department to create the largest-scale miniature set ever constructed for a Toho production, Tsuburaya was displeased with some of the sequences shot for the film, including some composite cuts of the
Shobijin. Nonetheless, he decided to keep these scenes upon editing
Mothra in
post-production. The film was released on July 30, 1961, becoming a massive box office hit and, as stated by biographer August Ragone, an "instant classic" alongside Honda and Tsuburaya's earlier
kaiju films
Godzilla and
Rodan. After directing
blue screen dream scenes with actor Toshiro Mifune for Hiroshi Inagaki's film '''' (1961), Tsuburaya moved on to direct the effects for Shūe Matsubayashi's epic
tokusatsu film
The Last War, which emerged as a major hit upon its October 1961 release, with Tsuburaya's effects receiving critical acclaim. The effects director himself would later list
The Last War as one of his "masterpieces". Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, assured from the box office success of
Mothra and
The Last War, gave Honda and Tsuburaya their greatest budget yet and 300 days to shoot
Gorath, their next science fiction epic. Although
Gorath is considered to feature some of Tsuburaya's best work as a special effects director, it was a box office failure when it was released in March 1962. On May 15, the director appeared on NK Educational TV's program
Japanese Standards; in July, he finished directing the effects for '''', a South Korean-produced film that was never released in Japan. After filming
Gorath, Tsuburaya began planning to work on other projects, such as a new version of
Princess Kaguya. However, he postponed those as soon as he was given the opportunity to direct the special effects for Honda's
crossover film
King Kong vs. Godzilla. The script's early drafts were sent back with notes from Toho asking for the monster antics to be as "funny as possible"; Tsuburaya embraced this approach, seeking to emotionally appeal to children and expand the genre's audience. Many of the sequences for the battle between the two monsters were purposefully filled with humorous details, but the approach was not favored by most of the effects crew, who "couldn't believe" some of the things Tsuburaya asked them to do, such as Kong and Godzilla volleying a giant boulder back and forth. For their portrayals, Tsuburaya gave Haruo Nakajima (playing Godzilla) and
Shoichi Hirose (playing King Kong) freedom to choreograph their own moves. Tsuburaya directed sequences at a miniature outdoor set on the
Miura Coast, which depicted the giant octopus's attack on the Faro Island village. During its original theatrical release in August 1962,
King Kong vs. Godzilla became the
second-highest-grossing Japanese film in history and was watched by 11.2 million people, leading it to be regarded as the most-attended film in the
Godzilla series. Tsuburaya's final film release of 1962 was Inagaki's epic
jidaigeki film
Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki, for which he and his department made
forced perspective stages and various optical effects. Produced by Toho—like
King Kong vs. Godzilla—in celebration of their 30th anniversary,
Chūshingura was the company's fourth highest-grossing film of the year, and their tenth-highest altogether.
Birth of a company to last years: 1963–1970 Birth of a company and career expansion (1963–1964) The first movie released in 1963 to feature Tsuburaya's contributions was another war film by Shūe Matsubayashi,
Attack Squadron!, distributed in January of that year. Despite not being an epic film, unlike Toho's previous war movies,
Attack Squadron! still featured several miniature Japanese and American aircraft, crafted by Tsuburaya's crew, with some of the models being controlled via
radio control. The sole new miniature battleship built for the film was
Yamato, an enormous motorized model constructed at 1/15 scale and measuring 17.5 meters (or 57.5 feet). After visiting Hollywood in order to study the special effects work of major American studios, Tsuburaya founded his own independent company,
Tsuburaya Special Effects Productions (later called simply Tsuburaya Productions), on April 12, 1963. It was initially handled entirely by his family: Tsuburaya was reported as its director general and president; his wife Masano was on the director's board; his second son Noboru was appointed as accountant. Hajime, Tsuburaya's eldest son, would soon join the company as well, leaving his award-winning directorial employment at the
Tokyo Broadcasting System. Around August of the same year, photography assistant
Kiyoshi Suzuki was hired alongside , a former news cameraman for
Kyodo Television. Takano was directly involved in Tsuburaya Productions' first-ever full-scale
tokusatsu production,
Alone Across the Pacific (1963), which required twenty-five effects sequences. Throughout the rest of the year, Tsuburaya worked both for his new company and Toho, where he was still at the helm of the effects department, despite having terminated his exclusive deal with the company. The second film released in 1963 to feature his contributions was
Li Han-hsiang's Hong Kong
musical film The Love Eterne. The effects director was tasked to stage the scene where an earthquake split the tomb of the character Liang Shanbo (played by
Ivy Ling Po) in two and the protagonist (played by
Betty Loh Ti) ascended into heaven. Cinematographer
Tadashi Nishimoto traveled to Japan in order to film Tsuburaya's effects at Shintoho's . Thereafter, the special effects director moved on to the World War I adventure film ''''. In his first partnership with director , Tsuburaya's division developed several new models for the film, including large-scale miniatures, full-scale replications of early twentieth-century flying vehicles, and an enormous outdoor model set of Fort Bismarck. According to Ragone, Tsuburaya enjoyed working on this film, despite aiming to make his own tribute feature to Japanese aviation pioneers. Shortly after completing
The Siege of Fort Bismarck in April 1963, he began
pre-production work on
Matango, another film created in cooperation with Ishirō Honda, which was the final entry in the Transforming Human Series. In contrast with the majority of Toho's previous monster-themed films, the actors were capable of psychical interaction with the suit actors portraying the monsters on a sound stage. said that Tsuburaya "focused" Toho to purchase the "
Optical Printer 1900 Series" in order to facilitate the production of special effects, while noting that optical synthesis technology became popular following the film's release. A box office failure upon its Japanese release,
Matango was not included in
Kinema Junpo's list of height-grossing films for the year, and has been considered as one of Honda and Tsuburaya's most obscure movies ever since, being deemed as a "virtually unknown film". Tsuburaya soon moved on to film miniatures and produce optical animation (via his newly purchased Optical Printer 1900 Series) for
The Lost World of Sinbad. This film, directed by Senkichi Taniguchi from a screenplay by
Mothra and
King Kong vs. Godzilla writer
Shinichi Sekizawa, included an acclaimed choreographed chase sequence between a wizard and a witch, created via animation and matte photography, which gained Tsuburaya another Japan Technical Award for Special Skill. empire's guardian sea dragon
Manda on the set of
Atragon, 1963 Tsuburaya almost immediately started to work on another Honda-directed science fiction
tokusatsu movie,
Atragon (1963). Based on
Shunrō Oshikawa's novel
The Undersea Warship and incorporated with Shigeru Komatsuzaki's novel
Undersea Empire, the film concerns a group of former colleagues, friends, and family that must convince the captain of the battleship
Gotengo, Hachiro Jinguji (played by
Jun Tazaki), to use his battleship to save the world from the invading
ancient undersea civilization of Mu, who are using their advanced technology and their guardian sea dragon,
Manda, in an attempt to take over the surface world. Since Toho aimed to distribute the film in Japanese theaters on December 22 of that year, Tsuburaya was given roughly two months to shoot the effects sequences for
Atragon. As a result, in order to achieve the company's goal, he separated his special effects team into two units, assuring that it would allow him to complete the assignment as soon as possible. Although it was quickly converted and developed, the film is regarded as "one of the cornerstones of Japanese cinema" and is still often referenced in media. While working on
Atragon, Tsuburaya was also concluding model effects for the Hiroshi Inagaki-directed
jidaigeki film,
Whirlwind (1964). During this period of time, lack of sleep and workload-related stress were taking a toll on Tsuburaya's health, so much that he was often found sleeping in his chair during scene set-ups for his effects shoots. The fourth installment in the
Godzilla movie series,
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), was Tsuburaya's next project. Often regarded as the best
kaiju film to feature his works, it was produced in celebration of the tenth-anniversary of Toho's
kaiju films and depicts the battle between Godzilla and the title character of the 1961 film
Mothra. Tsuburaya utilized his 1900 optical printer to remove damage in
composite photographs for the picture and create Godzilla's atomic breath; he also went on location to shoot some composite plates of
Nagoya Castle for the scene where Godzilla destroyed the building. Since
Godzilla actor Haruo Nakajima could not destroy the castle's model entirely, as originally planned, Tsuburaya first attempted to salvage the shot by making Godzilla seem enraged by the castle's strong fortification, before eventually choosing to re-shoot the scene with a more fragile model. He also went on location to shoot a segment featuring the United States Navy discharging missiles at Godzilla: this scene was included in the movie's version for the U.S. market, whereas it was omitted from the original Japanese version. This was one of the rare occasions when a sequence featuring Godzilla was shot outside Toho Studios.
Japanese-American coproductions and Ultra Q (1964–1965) (center) during the filming of the
dogfight scene in
None but the Brave (1965) In the spring of 1964, Tsuburaya received a visit from frequent collaborator Ishirō Honda on the
Hawaiian Island of
Kauai. The effects director was shooting a
dogfight and plane crash sequence for
Frank Sinatra's
None but the Brave (released in 1965), the renowned singer and actor's sole directorial picture. As the first major Japanese-American co-production, the epic anti-war film revolved around a troop of American soldiers, stranded in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean during World War II, who are forced to collaborate with an opposition Japanese unit that has also been stranded on the same island. During Honda's visit, Tsuburaya told him he was working on his first television series for Tsuburaya Productions, then-titled
Unbalance, but was struggling to find a lead actor for it. Honda convinced
Kenji Sahara (who starred in
None but the Brave and several Honda-Tsuburaya
kaiju films) to play the team leader for the intended show, which would later become
Ultra Q (1966).
None but the Brave was later released in Japan by Toho on January 15, 1965, and was distributed by
Warner Bros. in the U.S. the following month. In January 1964, while in
New York, Tsuburaya ordered
Oxberry's 1200 optical printer, a model that at the time was owned by only one other studio in the entire world:
Disney. Despite having to spend a then-record fee, Tsuburaya wanted to purchase the new printer for Tsuburaya Productions because it was one of the most adaptable post-production tools: moreover, he had used Oxberry's previous iteration of the device on films such as
Matango. He went on to operate this technology on
Ultra Q, Tsuburaya Productions' first television series, which was a combination of two of his previously discarded projects, tentatively titled
Unbalance and
WoO. Principal photography on
Ultra Q began on September 27, 1964, with the shooting of the episode "Mammoth Flower". Airing on the Tokyo Broadcasting System from January 2 to July 3, 1966, the series follows the adventures of a trio who investigates strange phenomena, ranging from supernatural threats to
kaiju, in the 20th century. Upon broadcast, around 30% of Japanese households with televisions watched the show, making Tsuburaya a household name and gaining him even more attention from the media, who dubbed him the "God of
Tokusatsu". After directing the effects on Honda's
kaiju film
Dogora (released in August 1964), Tsuburaya renewed their collaboration for the
kaiju film,
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, making 1964 the only time two
Godzilla movies were ever released in the same year (the first one being
Mothra vs. Godzilla). Conceived as one of the features celebrating ten years of Toho's
kaiju films,
Ghidorah featured a dragon
kaiju designed as an homage to
Yamata no Orochi,
King Ghidorah, who opposed Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra in the film. Tsuburaya and Toho executives decided to
anthropomorphize the monsters for the film, despite Honda feeling "uncomfortable" with the decision and being reluctant to use
The Peanuts (who previously played Mothra's fairies in the namesake film) as the interpreters for the
kaiju in the summit scene. Released on December 20, 1964,
Ghidorah was a massive box office hit, grossing , relatively more than
King Kong vs. Godzilla, the series' previous record holder. King Ghidorah would go on to become a frequent antagonist of the
Godzilla franchise. Tsuburaya began 1965 by directing the effects for Seiji Maruyama's war film
Retreat from Kiska. Tsuburaya spent two months filming the scene where the fleet circles Kiska Island in thick fog on an indoor stage set since the fog could not be controlled by the wind during open shooting. The sequence where the fleet slips through the rocks was realized by laying a rail at the bottom of the special effects pool and running the warship's miniature on it. The miniatures could not be very large for on-set shooting, and the water flow was pumped to adjust the proportions of the waves and wakes. A large outdoor pool is used in the scene of port entry and departure without fog. For his work on
Kiska, Tsuburaya won a Japan Technical Award for Special Skill at the 19th Japan Technical Awards. actor Kōji Furuhata (right) on the set of
Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) His next production,
Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965), depicted
Frankenstein's monster fighting a new subterranean
kaiju, named
Baragon in Japan. Tsuburaya was reportedly enthusiastic about working on the film because the titular monsters were going to be smaller than normal, allowing his team to build larger model sets than the ones used in
Godzilla movies: plus, an actor in make-up—
Kōji Furuhata—would be involved to play Frankenstein, rather than leaving the role to a
stuntman in a monster suit. In spite of featuring model sets among the biggest and most detailed models for a Honda-Tsuburaya collaboration, some critics have questioned several of Tsuburaya's ideas, including a puppet used to portray a horse, instead of an actual equine, for a sequence in which Baragon overruns a farmstead. According to Koichi Takano, Tsuburaya said that he used the puppet because it was "more fun". Tsuburaya also made a scene depicting the
atomic bomb falling upon Hiroshima, which Honda biographers Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski called an "impressionistic display of smoke and fire". After post-production on the film was finalized for its Japanese release, held two days after the twentieth anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing (August 8, 1965), American co-producer
Henry G. Saperstein asked for Toho to film a new ending for the U.S. version: Tsuburaya and Honda, accordingly, re-assembled the cast and crew to shoot the new ending, although it was eventually left unused in both American and Japanese iterations of the motion picture. Still, the alternative ending was later screened at a fan convention in 1982, before featuring as a bonus scene on home video. Following
Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Tsuburaya quickly moved on to his next film, Kengo Furusawa's
The Crazy Adventure, produced in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the
Crazy Cats comedy group. Inspired by popular
spy films of the time, Tsuburaya's department extensively used "
wire action" in outdoor locations, while lead actor
Hitoshi Ueki performed most of the movie's action sequences without any stunts. Tsuburaya also directed miniature effects sequences for the film. Released in Japan on October 31, 1965,
The Crazy Adventure was another box office hit for Tsuburaya, earning even more than
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. (in
Godzilla suit) on the set of
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) Then, Tsuburaya worked on Honda's
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965), the sixth film in the
Godzilla franchise and
Shōwa period, as well as the second collaboration between Toho and
UPA. A direct sequel to
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, the movie focuses on two astronauts who land on a planet occupied by an alien race, known as the "Xiliens", as they ask humanity for assistance with Godzilla and Rodan in defeating the "intruder" King Ghidorah. After bringing the astronauts, scientist Sakurai, Godzilla, and Rodan to their planet, the aliens attempt to exploit Ghidorah, Godzilla, and Rodan to conquer the Earth by mind-controlling them. The last
Godzilla film to feature the contributions of Tsuburaya's entire effects unit,
Invasion of Astro-Monster notably features Godzilla's renowned victory dance, which derived from the
shie! dance featured in
Fujio Akatsuka's comedy manga series
Osomatsu-kun (1962–1969), a popular culture sensation at the time of the film's production. The dance was included in the film after a Toho employee suggested it to Tsuburaya, who was already supportive of anthropomorphizing monster characters with comical characteristics. For his work on
Invasion of Astro-Monster, the director obtained the Japan Technical Award for Special Skill the following year.
Ultraman and beyond (1966–1967) At the height of
Ultra Q's popularity, TBS aired "The Father of
Ultra Q", an episode of their documentary series
Modern Leaders, on June 2, 1966. Throughout the episode, Tsuburaya was filmed at work and elsewhere, being even interviewed by individuals dressed in
Ultra Q monster costumes: in this instance, he mentioned for the first time that he was working on a new show to follow
Ultra Q, which later turned out to be
Ultraman. Tsuburaya had begun working on the new
tokusatsu series in the autumn of the previous year: TBS executives wanted to produce a series as thriving as
Ultra Q and wanted a full-color program that would "take the monster line to the next level". Tsuburaya and writer Tetsuo Kinjō decided to take the barebones concept of
Ultra Q about civilians and scientists haggling monsters: they came up with the idea of a group, tentatively named the "Scientific Investigation Agency" (SIA), formed to deal with
kaiju and supernatural phenomena as the focus of the new show. The pair also agreed to add unused conceptions from
Ultra Q and
WoO. Tsuburaya had spent significant amounts of studio money to build his models for the
Godzilla films, so TBS aimed to monetize these miniatures and was looking for a task that could repurpose the sets and suits from the
Godzilla franchise. (in
Ultraman suit), During designing, Tsuburaya found the original versions of
title character's design to be "too alien and sinister", and requested production designer
Tohl Narita to keep drafting additional designs as teleplays were being written concurrently. Narita chose to root Ultraman's design in the Greek concept of
cosmos (order and harmony), in contrast to his previous designs for
Ultra Q, which had been inspired by the concept of
khaos. Tsuburaya provided input on Narita's designs, with some being inspired by the art of
Miyamoto Musashi. Ultraman's silver skin symbolized steel from an interstellar rocket, while the red lining represented the surface of
Mars. As stated by biographer August Ragone, Ultraman became Tsuburaya's "most popular and enduring creation". The filming sessions for
Ultraman began in March 1966, and the crew was divided into three separate groups for its live-action and special effects. Tsuburaya Productions and TBS initially planned to start broadcasting the series on July 17, 1966, but the latter company chose to release it the week before. Tsuburaya supervised the production of every episode of the series and served as the
de facto special effects director for episodes 18 and 19. After a few meetings between the two companies and sponsors, it was decided that a pilot episode, originally planned as the "Ultraman Eve Festival", would introduce the show's title character. The pilot episode was aired on July 10—one of the dates that have been cited as Tsuburaya's birthday— of that same year, under the title
The Birth of Ultraman: An Ultraman Premiere Celebration.
Ultraman became a larger hit than its predecessor, obtaining a 40% viewership. With monsters now available to watch at home weekly, children fewer asked their parents to take them to the theater: consequently, Tsuburaya Productions' triumph in television was diverting box-office money from Toho's
kaiju films. Also in 1966, Tsuburaya worked once again with Honda for the
kaiju film The War of the Gargantuas, produced in collaboration with Henry G. Saperstein, which centered on scientists investigating the appearance of two giant hairy humanoids who eventually fight each other in Tokyo. Initially drafted as a sequel to
Frankenstein vs. Baragon, the film went through several tentative titles during scripting, and the final film was referred to by film chronicler
Stuart Galbraith IV as a "quasi–sequel" to its predecessor. The film premiered in Japan in July 1966. After Tsuburaya's series
Booska the Friendly Beast began airing on television in November 1966, he received his last credit as "special effects director" on a
Godzilla film for
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. However, his disciple actually served as a
de facto special effects director for this film, with Tsuburaya's credit being merely ceremonial. The following year, Tsuburaya directed the effects for
King Kong Escapes, a Japanese-American co-production created to celebrate Toho's thirty-fifth anniversary. In homage to the dinosaur fighting scene from
King Kong (1933), the director introduced
Gorosaurus, a dinosaurian
kaiju that battles Kong on Mondo Island in the film. The ensuing 1967 release featuring Tsuburaya's contributions was
Ultraseven, the third entry in the
Ultra series, which had been influenced by the British TV series
Thunderbirds. The series received a 33.7% rating upon beginning airing on October 7, 1967. Also in 1967, he was appointed "special effects supervisor" and handed over the position of special effects director for the
Godzilla film series to Arikawa, starting with
Son of Godzilla.
Final works, last years, and death (1968–1970) In 1967, Tsuburaya Productions' writing crew took elements from Shinichi Sekizawa's screenplay,
The Flying Battleship, and inserted concepts from it into a TV series,
Mighty Jack, which was similar in concept to
James Bond and
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Concerning a team of secret agents established by a prosperous industrialist to oppose the acts of a military organization, referred to as "Q",
Mighty Jack was aimed at a more mature audience, in contrary to the
Ultra series and
Booska the Friendly Beast. Due to pressure from
Fuji TV, the series declined rapidly after the release of its first episode on April 6, 1968, as a consequence of its poor quality: many teleplays were filmed without revision, effects work frequently lacked time, and reshoots were often unattainable. Fuji TV considered the series as a commercial failure, due to its 8.3% audience rating, and they canceled it after Tsuburaya Productions had finished producing just 13 of the scheduled 26 episodes. A sequel to the series, titled
Fight! Mighty Jack, later began broadcasting in July 1968. With budgets rising, less returning crew, and theatergoers being dragged away by television, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka chose to conclude the
Godzilla series but offered one last film for the original staff. Honda's consequential
kaiju epic,
Destroy All Monsters (1968), featured effects directed by Sadamasa Arikawa, which Tsuburaya allegedly supervised. His next release of that year was another Seiji Maruyama's war epic,
Admiral Yamamoto, which starred
Toshiro Mifune as
Imperial Japanese Navy Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (who was previously the topic of Honda and Tsuburaya's
Eagle of the Pacific).
Destroy All Monsters was the twelfth-highest grossing domestic film of 1968, registering an approximately -worth gain, while
Admiral Yamamoto was the second-highest grosser, at roughly . On September 15, 1968, the week after the final episode of
Ultraseven was broadcast and just over a month after
Admiral Yamamoto was distributed to Japanese theaters by Toho, the director's following project for Tsuburaya Productions, '''', began airing on the TBS, where he served as the show's supervisor.
Latitude Zero, released by Toho in July 1969, was a Japanese-American collaboration produced by Toho and Don Sharp Productions. The production was reported to have had a budget of (equivalent to about ), but Tsuburaya's department had difficulty making realistic creatures for the picture after its American producer pulled out of the project. In comparison, retrospective writers have praised Tsuburaya's model work, especially his submarines, which Ryfle and Godziszewski noted resembled
Thunderbirds machines in
Gerry Anderson's show of the same name. Like Honda and Tsuburaya's previous effort,
Latitude Zero only grossed (), making it a box office failure. Tsuburaya quickly moved on to his next project,
Battle of the Japan Sea, regarded as the third film in the "Toho 8.15 series" (following ''
Japan's Longest Day and Admiral Yamamoto''). Tsuburaya was provided with his largest budget ever for the Seiji Maruyama-directed war epic film about the
Russo-Japanese War. Thus, 60 members of his department's artists created an estimated 107 ship miniatures for the film and constructed a 13-meter model replica of the Imperial Japanese Navy's battleship
Mikasa, in contrast to the other 3-meter ships. Released in August 1969,
Battle of the Japan Sea was the second highest Japanese grosser of 1969, earning against its budget. Deemed one of Tsuburaya's masterpieces,
Battle of the Japan Sea was the last production he officially took part in as the special effects director. On the same month, Tsuburaya Productions' next series,
Horror Theater Unbalance (aired in 1973), entered the production process: Tsuburaya was credited as its supervisor. Tsuburaya and several of Toho's effects crew members spent the majority of 1969 working together to create
Birth of the Japanese Islands, an
audiovisual exhibit simulating earthquakes and volcanoes, which was set to be part of
Mitsubishi's pavilion at the
Expo '70 in
Suita,
Osaka Prefecture. His commitment to the project prevented him from being involved in the production of
All Monsters Attack (1969), and director Honda handled special effects instead of him for the first time. Nonetheless, the director stated that Tsuburaya was "personally involved with the editing," adding: "The film may have been generally put together [by others], but he definitely looked it over and instructed the staff to shorten certain scenes, and so on." |321x301px Ignoring his doctor's recent advice to reduce his workload due to declining health, Tsuburaya started displaying symptoms of
unstable angina, and he collapsed while visiting the
Naruto whirlpools during the shooting sessions for the Expo '70 film presentation. He was subsequently sent to in
Meguro to continue his recovery, but refused to remain there, as he expected to complete
Birth of the Japanese Islands on schedule: instead, he accepted an offer to recover and receive medical treatment at Ukiyama Villa on the
Izu Peninsula in
Itō, Shizuoka, where he was instructed to cancel any assignments. Concerned about Tsuburaya's future, his son Hajime quit his job at TBS and officially took over his father's position as the president of Tsuburaya Productions on November 30, 1969. In December 1969, Tsuburaya completed filming the Expo '70 project and moved to his Ukiyama Villa with his wife Masano, where he persisted in writing his autobiography and the film outlines
Japan Airplane Guy and
Princess Kaguya. While continuing to write the
Japan Airplane Guy story treatment daily, he expressed his desire to work on more projects in the future and return to Tokyo on January 26, 1970. However, on January 25, 1970, at 10:15 P.M., Masano awoke and discovered that Tsuburaya had died while sleeping with her at the villa in Itō, Shizuoka: he was 68 years old. Japanese sources have cited the cause of his death as
angina associated with an
asthma attack. On January 27, a mourning tradition took place at the Tsuburaya family's house. His funeral was held at the Seijō Catholic Church on January 29, with his eldest son Hajime serving as the chief mourner. The following day, he was posthumously awarded the Honorary Chairman Award by the Japanese Society of Cinematographers and the
Order of the Sacred Treasure by emperor
Hirohito. A Catholic service was held at Toho Studios on February 2, with
The Last War producer
Sanezumi Fujimoto providing the services. Five hundred friends and colleagues attended the service, including actor Kazuo Hasegawa,
The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya director Kajirō Yamamoto,
The Three Treasures director Hiroshi Inagaki, and
A Thousand and One Nights with Toho director
Kon Ichikawa. He was later entombed at the Catholic Cemetery in
Fuchū, Tokyo, Japan. ==Filmmaking==