Eiji Tsuburaya(1901-1970)

In 1963, while still head of the special effects department at Toho, he established his own independent production company, Tsuburaya Special Effects Productions. The company started off making science fiction/fantasy productions, requiring many special effects, for television. His sons became heavily involved with the company. Their most successful creation, and one of their earliest, was "Urutoraman: Kuso tokusatsu shirizu" (1966) which they were able to sell internationally under the title "Ultraman." The series would have various television and feature film incarnations going into the 21st century. The company would later be renamed as simply Tsuburaya Productions.