Fuminori Ôhashi(1915-1989)

The collective labors of Fuminori Ohashi are among the most widely recognized, yet mostly Anonymous artistic works of the century. A pioneer of special effects from the dawn of Japanese cinema, his first tasks included the development of a Japanese version of King Kong for the lost film Kingu Kongu Edo ni arawareta (1934) (meaning King Kong Appears in Edo). Much later he helped supervise the development of the suit for the original Gojira (1954), and created lighter-weight materials for the Gojira suit and those of other monsters as colleague Eiji Tsuburaya continued to work on monster movies. Ohashi also served as a technical advisor and designer for the attractions at the original Disneyland, and also worked (uncredited) on developing the makeup materials for Planet of the Apes (1968). Influential yet utterly Anonymous, Ohashi's name is obscure even in his country of origin, and even among historians of special effects cinema techniques.