Godzilla (1954) was created in Japan under the writing and direction of Ishiro Honda. The production of which was funding by the Japanese media company, Toho. Toho is known for Godzilla, Studio Ghibli, and Akira Kurosawa’s work.
In 1932 Ichizo Kobayashi, the founder of Hankyu Railway, created a musicl theater troup. He had a love of the theater and slowly expanded this theater group, “Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company” down into a shortened form, Toho. He prided himself on having his work be publicaly accesible and reasonably priced.
Although, his ambitions didn’t stop and theaters. He bought two film production companies and created a system for distributing films produced by studios. By 1953 they have produced their first film.
During World War Two Toho became the face of Japanese filmmaking. They made a number of military films that followed the progapanda narrative’s pushed during the era. In 1943 Toho released Akira Kurosawa’s first film, starting the director’s long and succesful career.
After the war, Toho struggled, unions and strikes caused production shutdown and nearly ended the company entirely. However, by the 1950’s the company was growing again.
In 1954 Toho released two inconic films, Seven Samurai and Godzilla. Which both gained widespread popularity across Japan. Toho also began there expansion out overseas in an attempt to market and show their movies abroad.
Throughout the 60s and 70s Toho expanded into the U.S. into theater. They wanted to move past film production and into other areas. The monster genre maintained it’s popularity and multiple sequels to Godzilla were released in this time frame. Although this films were popular Toho’s success had plateaued.
The eighties saw a new beginning for the company. They successfully revived the Godzilla franchise following new creative direction focused more closely on the original 1954 film. Toho in 1989 also became the distributor for Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli produced high grossing movies internationally and grew the studio’s recognition beyond Japan and into the international spotlight.
In the modern era, Toho has continued to make various Godzilla films. The two most recent being Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One. Toho owns some of Japan’s most profitable franchises and only continues to grow.
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