Draft:Shigeru Kayama

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{{AFC comment|1=Please check the sources again. They do not appear to support the information, and a few of them don't exist or are dead links. bonadea contributions talk 14:47, 12 April 2025 (UTC)}}

{{AFC comment|1=Almost all the information is unsourced, since the sources don't support the content. [https://godzillacineaste.net/people/kayama-shigeru Source 3], for instance, only mentions his birth and death dates and says he was a screenwriter for the Godzilla films. The draft text is almost certainly generated by an LLM and thus the claims in it cannot be trusted. bonadea contributions talk 09:43, 12 February 2025 (UTC)}}

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{{Short description|Japanese author and screenwriter (1904–1975)}}

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{{Infobox person

| name = Shigeru Kayama

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| native_name = 香山滋

| native_name_lang = ja

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|07|01}}

| birth_place = Tokyo, Empire of Japan

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1975|02|07|1904|07|01}}

| death_place = Tokyo, Japan

| occupation = Novelist, screenwriter

| known_for = Original story for Godzilla (1954)

| notable_works = Godzilla, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra

| awards = Japan Mystery Writers Association New Writer Award (1948){{cite web |title=Past Winners |url=https://www.mysterywriters.jp/award/winner_new.html |website=Mystery Writers of Japan |access-date=12 July 2024}}

}}

Shigeru Kayama (香山滋, Kayama Shigeru, July 1, 1904 – February 7, 1975) was a Japanese novelist and screenwriter best known for creating the original story for the 1954 film Godzilla. Film historian David Kalat described his work as "foundational to the kaiju genre’s exploration of nuclear anxiety."{{cite book |last=Kalat |first=David |title=A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0786447497 |page=18}}

Early life

Kayama was born in Shinjuku, Tokyo. After developing an interest in paleontology through Yukijirō Yokoyama's book Prehistoric World, he studied geology independently while attending Tokyo Metropolitan Toyama High School. He later dropped out of Hosei University's economics program to join the Japanese Ministry of Finance in 1927.{{cite book |last=Tsutsui |first=William |title=Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2004 |isbn=978-1403964748 |pages=27–29}}

Career

= Literary works =

Kayama began writing tanka poetry in 1940 under mentor Kichi Ikaiei.{{cite web |title=Shigeru Kayama: Master of Ancient Romances and Strange Tales |url=https://www3.city.tokyo-nakano.lg.jp/tosho/yukari/yukari12.pdf |website=Nakano City Library |access-date=12 July 2024 }} After World War II, he transitioned to fiction:

Won the 1946 Hōseki magazine contest with "Orang Pendek’s Revenge".{{cite book |last=Kalat |first=David |title=A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0786447497 |page=12}}
Received the 1948 Japan Mystery Writers Association New Writer Award for "Unagi-sō Kidan".{{cite web |title=Past Winners |url=https://www.mysterywriters.jp/award/winner_new.html |website=Mystery Writers of Japan |access-date=12 July 2024}}

His adventure novels, such as Island of Terror (1948), established him as a pioneer of Japanese weird fiction.{{cite journal |last=Napier |first=Susan |title=Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster |journal=Journal of Japanese Studies |year=1993 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=327–351 |doi=10.2307/132643|jstor=132643 }}

= ''Godzilla'' and film contributions =

In 1954, Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka commissioned Kayama to draft The Giant Monster from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which became the basis for Godzilla. Though director Ishirō Honda revised the script, Kayama retained a "Story by" credit.{{cite web |title=Godzilla (1954) Credits |url=https://www.toho.co.jp/movie/detail/40th_anniversary_godzilla |website=Toho |access-date=12 July 2024}}

Other screenwriting credits include:

The Invisible Avenger (1954){{cite web |title=The Invisible Avenger (1954) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/ |website=IMDb |access-date=12 July 2024}}
The Human Vapor (1960){{cite web |title=The Human Vapor (1960) |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054997/ |website=IMDb |access-date=12 July 2024}}

Legacy

Kayama died of heart failure in Tokyo on February 7, 1975. His Godzilla novellas were translated into English in 2023, with critics noting they "recontextualize postwar Japan’s nuclear trauma."{{cite news |title=Godzilla Novellas Expand on the Monster's Origins |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2023/10/29/books/godzilla-novellas-shigeru-kayama/ |newspaper=The Japan Times |date=29 October 2023}} Jeffrey Angles, the translator, highlights how Kayama’s original anti-nuclear message resurfaces in these works.

Selected works

= Novels =

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra (1957)
Godzilla (1954 novelization){{cite book |last=Kayama |first=Shigeru |title=Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again |translator-last=Angles |translator-first=Jeffrey |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-5179-1523-0 |pages=xi–xiii}}
Godzilla Raids Again (1955 novelization)

= Short stories =

"Orang Pendek’s Revenge" (1946)
"Butterfly Story" (1958){{cite book |last=Kayama |first=Shigeru |title=Butterfly Story and Other Tales |publisher=Shueisha |year=1959 |isbn=978-4-08-851234-5 |page=45}}

= Filmography =

Godzilla (1954) – Story{{cite book |last=Ryfle |first=Steve |title=Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of Godzilla |publisher=ECW Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-1550223484 |page=47}}
The Invisible Avenger (1954) – Screenplay
The Human Vapor (1960) – Screenplay

References

External links

{{IMDb name|0443021|Shigeru Kayama}}
[https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517915230/godzilla-and-godzilla-raids-again/ Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again translation page]

{{Draft categories|

:Category:1904 births}}

{{Draft categories|

:Category:1975 deaths}}

{{Draft categories|

:Category:Japanese novelists}}

{{Draft categories|

:Category:Japanese screenwriters}}

{{Draft categories|

:Category:Writers from Tokyo}}

{{Draft categories|

:Category:Godzilla}}