Fuminori Ôhashi(1915-1989)
- Actor
- Special Effects
- Director
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.