Tomoyuki Tanaka

Tanaka was born on April 26, 1910,^[3] in Kashiwara, Osaka.^[1] As a child, he would often walk miles to the nearest theater to watch silent adventure and ninja films in the afternoons.^[5] At the age of 14, Tanaka saw the silent Western film The Covered Wagon and was so enamored by its cinematography that it remained his all-time favorite film.^[5] In his youth, Tanaka was once disowned by his parents because he focused more on his interests, films and acting, than on his studies.^[5]

 

Soon after graduating from Kansai University,^[6] Tanaka entered the Japanese film industry in 1940 and joined the film studio Taiho Eiga. The following year, Tanaka moved to Toho after it merged with Taiho Eiga and began his career as a producer under Iwao Mori.^[7] After four years with the company, he began producing his own films, and one of his first efforts, Three People of the North [ja], was released in 1945. In his 57-year career, Tanaka produced more than 200 films.^[5]

He is best known as the creator, with storyteller Shigeru Kayama, director Ishirō Honda, writer Takeo Murata and special-effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, of Godzilla, the towering embodiment of post-World War II anxiety. Tanaka created Godzilla in 1954 in an effort to illustrate the terror Japan felt after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In an interview in 1991, Tanaka summed up the symbolism of Godzilla:^[8]

Japanese people back then had a great fear of radiation, which is what gave Godzilla his enormous size. He has always stood for nature's retaliation against humanity.

The classic 1954 film Godzilla and in 1955 would spawn a series of sequels, adding up to 38 films as of March 29, 2024. Thirty-three movies have been produced by Toho, and five by the American studios TriStar Pictures and Legendary Pictures. He often worked with the other three members of the Godzilla team: Honda, Tsuburaya, and composer Akira Ifukube, to complete such works as The Mysterians (1957) and Matango (1963). he also creates manipulative aliens, causing problems for the Earth, for the purpose of political, according to the tendencies of his monster films. Tanaka also created the space-monster King Ghidorah and the innocent Minilla. He produced six films directed by the acclaimed Akira Kurosawa.^[9] Their film Kagemusha (1980) was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar and took the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

He is credited for the "original story" in Godzilla 1985.^[10]

In 1950, Tanaka married 23-year-old actress Chieko Nakakita,^[11] with whom he later had three sons^[9] and adopted a daughter named Mieko.^[12]

• Fukuda, Jun; Someya, Katsuki (2001). 100 Out of 100 Toho Movies! Film Director Jun Fukuda (in Japanese). Wides Publishing. ISBN 978-4898300633.
• Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1461673743.
• Kalat, David (2010). A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series (Second ed.). McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786447497.
• Kawakita, Kōichi (November 30, 2009). Heisei Godzilla Chronicle. Kinema Junpo. ISBN 978-4-87376-319-4.
• Nichigai Associates (1998). 現代日本人名録 98 [Directory of Contemporary Japanese People: 98] (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Nichigai Associates. ISBN 978-4816914683.
• Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G. ECW Press. ISBN 1550223488.
• Tanaka, Tomoyuki (1983). The Complete History of Toho Special Effects Movies (in Japanese). Toho Publishing Business Office. ISBN 4-924609-00-5.

• Tomoyuki Tanaka on the official Toho website (archived)
• Tomoyuki Tanaka at the National Film Archive of Japan