Ishiro Honda (本多猪四郎)

Ishiro Honda, Toho's most renowned director of science fiction, is most famous for his numerous entries in the Godzilla series, including the first: Godzilla (1954). This genre would end up defining his career, as he worked on numerous productions around giant monsters, including Rodan (1956), Mothra (1961) and The War of the Gargantuas (1966) to name a few.

Despite his reputation for his work on science fiction, Honda actually started off working largely on war pictures and documentaries. He was also a close friend of director Akira Kurosawa. The pair worked together early in their career, both being assistant directors on projects like Horse (1941). Toward the end of the decade Honda transitioned to being an assistant director to Kurosawa briefly on Stray Dog (1949). Afterwards, Honda struck it out on his own and held a directing career throughout the 1950's to 1970's. After this long career, the director stepped out of the limelight only to be brought back in by Kurosawa in the 1980's. This saw the two work on movies like Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985) and Dreams (1990).