Sunday, June 2, 2024

Keiko Suzuki, Eiji Tsuburaya's Script Supervisor, Passes Away at 86

Keiko Suzuki in March 2018. Photo by Brett Homenick.

According to sources in the know in Japan, Eiji Tsuburaya's script supervisor Keiko Suzuki passed away on May 23 after a long illness. She was 86. 

Ms. Suzuki joined Tsuburaya's tokusatsu team in the late 1950s on The Three Treasures (1959) and would work as Tsuburaya's script supervisor during most of the '60s.

Perhaps Ms. Suzuki's most notable contribution to the world of tokusatsu is King Ghidorah's golden color. Due to the kaiju's Venusian origins (Venus is essentially known as the golden star in Japanese), she suggested that King Ghidorah should be of the same color. (It's worth noting that suitmaker Keizo Murase tells a different version of the story.)

Born Keiko Hisamatsu, she would go on to marry future Tsuburaya Productions producer Kiyoshi Suzuki. Ms. Suzuki often attended tokusatsu events in Tokyo before the pandemic but had become noticeably absent as her health began to decline.

I wanted to interview for years but couldn't due to her health. But I was able to chat with her about numerous topics over the years and still have those notes. Perhaps I could put those out in a blog post someday.

RIP, Suzuki-san.

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