# Eiji Tsuburaya filmography

Eiji Tsuburaya (1901–1970) was a Japanese special effects director and filmmaker who worked on roughly 250 films throughout his five-decade career. Having pioneered and popularized the special effects sector of the Japanese film industry, he is popularly known as the "Father of Tokusatsu". Tsuburaya started his career in the Japanese film industry as a cinematographer for several successful dramas and jidaigeki (Japanese historical drama) films in the early 1920s. 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. 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). It was one of Japan's first major productions to feature special effects. The next year, Tsuburaya made his dramatic directorial debut with the release of Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village and had substantial success staging the special effects for Arnold Fanck's The Daughter of the Samurai (released in 1937).
Tsuburaya left his job in Kyoto and moved to Tokyo in order to form the newly established company Toho's special effects division in late 1937. The following year, 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. In 1942, Tsuburaya supervised 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. His efforts were regarded as a significant factor in its major critical and commercial success and earned him the Technical Research Award from the Japan Motion Picture Cinematographers Association. Tsuburaya was purged from employment at Toho by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in 1948. He 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. Tsuburaya returned to Toho in 1950, 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.
In 1954, Tsuburaya directed the special effects for Hiroshi Inagaki's jidaigeki epic Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto and Honda's kaiju film Godzilla. For the latter major critically and commercially successful film, he achieved his first Japan Technical Award for Special Skill and attained international recognition. 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. 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. Three years later, Tsuburaya earned another Japan Technical Award for his effects on Inagaki's $1 million epic The Three Treasures. Later, he worked on the tremendously successful tokusatsu films: Mothra, The Last War (both 1961), King Kong vs. Godzilla, and Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki (both 1962). In 1963, he earned the Japan Technical Award for his special effects work on The Lost World of Sinbad; the following year he made the effects for Honda's Mothra vs. Godzilla, often regarded as his best kaiju film. Also that year, he began preproduction on his recently founded company's first series that aired on Japanese television in 1966, under the title Ultra Q, and created the special effects for Frank Sinatra's war epic None but the Brave. His efforts on the 1965 war film Retreat from Kiska [ja] won him another Japan Technical Award for Special Skill and he gained the same award the following year for the same position in Honda's Invasion of Astro-Monster (also 1965).
Because Ultra Q was a tremendous success during its release, Tsuburaya moved on to develop and supervise a follow-up titled Ultraman. Ultraman was broadcast from 1966 to 1967 and was even more successful than its predecessor. These programs spanned a franchise that is still majorly popular and ongoing today. After working on Honda's influential kaiju film The War of the Gargantuas (1966), he began being credited as the "special effects supervisor" on the Godzilla films and continued receiving this credit until Destroy All Monsters (1968). His final official theatrical film credit, the Seiji Maruyama-directed war epic Battle of the Japan Sea, was released in August 1969 and became the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 1969; he received a ceremonial title as effects director on Honda's All Monsters Attack later that year. In December of the same year, he completed work on Birth of the Japanese Islands [ja], an audiovisual exhibit for the Expo '70. Tsuburaya planned to work on Space Amoeba, Japan Airplane Guy, and Princess Kaguya, but died in Itō, Shizuoka on January 25, 1970, a day before his scheduled return to Tokyo to begin work on the projects.

## Film

Film work by Eiji Tsuburaya :
| Year | Title | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) |
| Year | Title | Special effects director | Cinematographer | Director | Special effects supervisor | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 1919 | A Tune of Pity | No | Assistant | No | No | | |
| 1920 | Tombs of the Island | No | Assistant | No | No | | |
| 1925 | The Hunchback of Enmei'in Temple | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1926 | A Page of Madness | No | Assistant | No | No | | |
| 1927 | Children's Swordplay | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1927 | The Bat Copybook | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1927 | Mad Blade Under the Moon | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1927 | Record of the Tragic Swords of the Tenpo Era | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1928 | Sayamaro the Thief | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1929 | Light and Shadow | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1929 | A Tale of the Occult | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1930 | Sanji, the Wild Fox | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1931 | A Wolf Howls in the Blizzard | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1932 | Fierce Attack at Takadanobaba | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1932 | Ghost Story: The Book of Evening Calm | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1933 | Drizzle in Gion | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1934 | Astaro Descends Mt. Akagi | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1934 | Fusaemon Araki: Lord of Iga | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1935 | The Chorus of a Million | No | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1935 | Princess Kaguya | Yes | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1936 | Three Thousand Miles Across the Equator | No | Yes | Yes | No | Documentary | |
| 1936 | Folk Song Collection: Oichi of Torioi Village | No | No | Yes | No | | |
| 1937 | The Daughter of the Samurai | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1938 | The Abe Clan | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1938 | The Song of Major Nangō | No | Yes | Yes | No | Unreleased | |
| 1940 | The Imperial Way of Japan | No | Yes | Yes | No | | |
| 1940 | Navy Bomber Squadron [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1940 | The Burning Sky | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1940 | Son Gokū [ja] | No | Special effects | No | No | Two-part film; with Bunshiro Okuno | |
| 1941 | Moon Over Shanghai | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1942 | Bouquet for the South Pacific | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1942 | Koharu's Play | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1942 | War Song of the Wings [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1942 | The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1942 | Ramayana | No | No | No | No | Scripting supervisor | |
| 1943 | The Opium War | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | World of Love: The Story of Windcat Tomi | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Marching Music Force | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | The Story of Heiroku's Dream | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Watchtower Suicide Squad | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Military Song of the Morning Mist | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Man | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Diary of a Drifting Boy | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Hot Wind | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Forward with the Flag of Independence | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1943 | Naniwabushi Recitation Chushingura | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1944 | Fire on that Flag! | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1944 | Kato's Falcon Fighters Squadron | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1944 | Four Weddings | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1944 | Bomber Squadron, Move Out | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1945 | Until the Day of Victory [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1945 | Three People of the North [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1945 | Five Men from Tokyo [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1946 | The Descendants of Taro Urashima | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1946 | An Enemy of the People | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1946 | Lord for a Night | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1947 | A Thousand and One Nights with Toho | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1948 | A Moonflower in Heaven | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1948 | Gate of Flesh | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1948 | A Woman in a Typhoon Area | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1948 | The Bandit of Moonlight Castle | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1949 |
| 1949 | The White-Haired Fiend | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1949 | Flowers of Raccoon Palace | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1949 | The Rainbow Man [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | Uncredited; with Tatsuyuki Yokota | |
| 1949 | The Ghost Train | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1949 | My Name is Mistress | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1949 | The Invisible Man Appears | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1950 | Escape at Dawn | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1950 | Listen to the Voices of the Sea | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1950 | Kojirō Sasaki: Part One [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1951 | Beyond Love and Hate [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1951 | Pirate Ship [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1951 | The Lady of Musashino | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1952 | The Skin of the South | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1952 | Hakone Fuunroku [ja] | No | Special effects | No | No | | |
| 1952 | The Man Who Came to Port | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1953 | The Tower of Lilies [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1953 | The Sunday That Jumped Out [ja] | No | Yes | No | No | With Jun Yasumoto | |
| 1953 | Beyond the Clouds [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1953 | Anatahan | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1953 | What Is Your Name? [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1953 | Eagle of the Pacific | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1953 | What Is Your Name? Part II [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1954 | Farewell Rabaul | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1954 | What Is Your Name? Part III [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1954 | And Thus the Liberty Bell Rang | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1954 | Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1954 | Godzilla | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1954 | The Invisible Avenger | Yes | Yes | No | No | | |
| 1955 | Godzilla Raids Again | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1955 | Half Human | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1955 | Ginrin | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1956 | The Maiden Courtesan | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1956 | The Legend of the White Serpent | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1956 | Jun'ai [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1956 | Rodan | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1957 | Throne of Blood | Yes | No | No | No | Uncredited | |
| 1957 | The Paradise Island Story | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1957 | The Mysterians | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1958 | The H-Man | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1958 | Varan the Unbelievable | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1958 | The Hidden Fortress | Yes | No | No | No | Uncredited | |
| 1959 | Inao: Story of an Iron Arm [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1959 | Monkey Sun | Yes | No | No | No | Remake of Son Gokū (1940) | |
| 1959 | Submarine I-57 Will Not Surrender | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1959 | The Three Treasures | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1959 | Battle in Outer Space | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1960 | The Secret of the Telegian | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1960 | Storm Over the Pacific | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1960 | The Human Vapor | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1961 | The Story of Osaka Castle | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1961 | Mothra | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1961 | Blood on the Sea [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1961 | The Youth and His Amulet [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1961 | The Last War | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1962 | The Crimson Sky [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1962 | Gorath | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1962 | The Big Wave | Yes | No | No | No | Completed in 1961 | |
| 1962 | King Kong vs. Godzilla | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1962 | The Story of Shim Cheong [ko] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1962 | Chūshingura: Hana no Maki, Yuki no Maki | Yes | No | No | No | Uncredited | |
| 1963 | Attack Squadron! | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1963 | The Love Eterne | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1963 | Legacy of the 500,000 | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1963 | The Siege of Fort Bismarck [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1963 | Matango | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1963 | The Lost World of Sinbad | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1963 | Atragon | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1964 | Whirlwind | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1964 | Mothra vs. Godzilla | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1964 | The Rabble | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1964 | Dogora | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1964 | Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1965 | None but the Brave | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1965 | Retreat from Kiska [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1965 | Frankenstein vs. Baragon | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1965 | The Crazy Adventure | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1965 | Invasion of Astro-Monster | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1966 | The Adventure in Taklamakan [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | Uncredited | |
| 1966 | Zero Fighter [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1966 | The War of the Gargantuas | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1966 | Ebirah, Horror of the Deep | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1967 | King Kong Escapes | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1967 | Ultraman: Monster Movie Feature | No | No | No | No | Supervisor | |
| 1967 | Son of Godzilla | No | No | No | Yes | | |
| 1968 | Destroy All Monsters | No | No | No | Yes | | |
| 1968 | Admiral Yamamoto | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1969 | The Crazy Cats' Big Explosion [ja] | No | No | No | Yes | Uncredited | |
| 1969 | Latitude Zero | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1969 | Battle of the Japan Sea | Yes | No | No | No | | |
| 1969 | All Monsters Attack | No | No | No | Yes | Also participated in editing | |
| 1970 | Birth of the Japanese Islands [ja] | Yes | No | No | No | Produced in 1969 | |

## Television

Television work by Eiji Tsuburaya :
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) |
| Year | Title | Supervisor | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 1957 | Ninja Arts of Sanada Castle | Special effects | | |
| 1959–1960 | Mighty Atom | Special effects | Uncredited | |
| 1960 | Everyone's Occupation | No | Himself; episode "Video Magician: Special Skills Director" | |
| 1962 | Japanese Standards | No | Himself; May 15 episode | |
| 1966 | Ultra Q | Yes | Also producer | |
| 1966 | Modern Leaders | No | Himself; episode, "The Father of Ultra Q" | |
| 1966–1967 | Ultraman | Yes | Also developer | |
| 1967–1968 | Ultraseven | Yes | | |
| 1968 | Mighty Jack | Yes | | |
| 1968 | Fight! Mighty Jack | Yes | | |
| 1968 | Operation: Mystery! [ja] | Yes | | |
| 1973 | Horror Theater Unbalance | Yes | Produced in 1969 | |