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| Toshihiro Iijima in November 2018. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
It was announced today that writer-director Toshihiro Iijima died of aspiration pneumonia in a hospital in Yokohama at 8:59 p.m. on October 17. He was 89.
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| Shozo Uehara, Toshihiro Iijima, and Eizo Yamagiwa share a laugh in March 2016. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
Born on September 3, 1932, in Tokyo, Mr. Iijima was a director and screenwriter, mostly for television. In 1957, he joined what would eventually become TBS and worked his way up to becoming a director and scriptwriter.
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| Toshihiro Iijima in May 2017. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
He occasionally wrote scripts under the pen name Kitao Senzoku. Mr. Iijima wrote and directed many episodes of Ultra Q (1966) and Ultraman (1966-67), as well as directing Ultra Seven (1967-68) and Operation: Mystery! (1968-69). In addition, he wrote and directed the feature film Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972).
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| Mr. Iijima stands between Susumu Kurobe (left) and Bin Furuya in October 2017. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
His most notable contribution was directing episode 2 of the original Ultraman, which introduced Baltan Seijin to the series.
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| Kyoko Yashiro in November 2018. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
He was married to actress Kyoko Yashiro. Ms. Yashiro worked with acclaimed horror director Nobuo Nakagawa the film The Lady Vampire (1959), as well as appearing in Vampire Bride (1960) and The Ghost of the Girl Diver (1960) at Shintoho.
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| Toshihiro Iijima in July 2016. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
I had the privilege of meeting both Mr. Iijima and Ms. Yashiro at several events over the years. They were never anything less than friendly. I was surprised once when Mr. Iijima-san thanked me for always coming out to his events. I should have been thanking him!
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| With Mr. Iijima in May 2017. |
Rest in peace, Mr. Iijima. Thank you for helping to make television history.
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