was a Japanese film producer. He is best known for co-creating the ''Godzilla'' franchise and its associated spin-offs.

Early life

Tanaka was born on April 26, 1910, in

Kashiwara, Osaka 270px, Kashiwara City Hall is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 67,698 in 32007 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Geography Kashiwara is located about ...

. As a child, he would often walk miles to the nearest theater to watch silent adventure and ninja films in the afternoons. At the age of 14, Tanaka saw the silent Western film ''

The Covered Wagon ''The Covered Wagon'' is a 1923 American silent film, silent Western (genre), Western film released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Cruze based on a 1922 novel of the same name by Emerson Hough about a group of pioneers tr ...

'' and was so enamored by its cinematography that it remained his all-time favorite film. In his youth, Tanaka was once disowned by his parents because he focused more on his interests, films and acting, than on his studies.

Career

Soon after graduating from

Kansai University , abbreviated as or , is a private non-sectarian and coeducational university with its main campus in Suita, Osaka, Japan and two sub-campuses in Sakai and Takatsuki, Osaka. Founded as Kansai Law School in 1886, It has been recognized as one o ...

in 1940, Tanaka joined Taisho Studios which merged with

Toho Studios is a Japanese film production company that is a subsidiary of Toho Co., Ltd. Founded in November 8, 1971 as , the company originally served as a spin-off of Toho's original production department, and produced over 160 films. In December 2020, ...

in 1941. After four years with the company, he began producing his own films, and his first effort, '' Three Women of the North'', was released in 1945. In his 60-year career with Toho, Tanaka produced more than 200 films. He is best known as the creator, with storyteller Shigeru Kayama, director

Ishirō Honda was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 44 feature films in a career spanning 59 years. The most internationally successful Japanese filmmaker prior to Hayao Miyazaki, his films have had a significant influence on the film industry. Honda enter ...

, writer Takeo Murata and special-effects wizard

Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director and cinematographer. Known as the he worked on 250 feature films in a career spanning 50 years. He is regarded as one of the co-creators of the ''Godzilla'' series, as well as the main creator of the ...

, of Godzilla, the towering embodiment of post-World War II anxiety. Tanaka created Godzilla in 1954 in an effort to illustrate the terror Japanese felt after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In an interview in 1985, Tanaka summed up the symbolism of Godzilla:

In those days, Japanese had a real horror of radiation, and that horror is what made Godzilla so huge. From the beginning he has symbolized nature's revenge on mankind.

The classic 1954 film '' Godzilla'' (1954; released in the U.S. in 1956 as '' Godzilla, King of the Monsters!'') would spawn a series of sequels, adding up to 36 films by 2021. Thirty-two movies have been produced by Toho, and four by the American studios

TriStar Pictures TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...

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 is a 1957 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film begins with a giant fissure destroying an entire village. This leads to an investigation whereby the source is disc ...

'' (1957) and '' Matango'' (1963). Tanaka produced six films directed by the acclaimed

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

. Their film ''

Kagemusha is a 1980 jidaigeki film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate the dying ''daimyō'' Takeda Shingen to dissuade opposing lords fr ...

'' (1980) was nominated for a

Best Foreign Film Oscar Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation ...

and took the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

Personal life

Tanaka was married to actress Chieko Nakakita. They adopted a daughter named Mieko.

Filmography

As producer

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

Tomoyuki Tanaka on the official Toho website (archived)
{{Authority control 1910 births 1997 deaths Japanese film producers People from Kashiwara, Osaka