Koji Kajita

Director

Tokyo, Japan

October 7, 1923

Biography

Koji Kajita (Kajita Kōji, October 7, 1923 - August 18, 2013), also known under the pen name Susumu Ike (Ike Susumu), was a Japanese director, screenwriter, lyricist, and composer. His first film was "The Tale of Izu" (1951), and is most well-known for being the first assistant director to Ishiro Honda on many of the early Godzilla films, including "Godzilla" (1954), "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962), and "Mothra vs. Godzilla" (1964), as well as other Tokusatsu films produced by Toho throughout the 1950's and 1960's like "The Mysterians" (1957), "Matango" (1963), and "The War of the Gargantuas" (1966), the latter of which being his last Toho film. Kajita also composed and wrote the lyrics of the song "Daughters of Infant Island", for the Toho Tokusatsu film "Mothra" (1961), under the pen name Susumu Ike. After parting from Toho, he wrote the screenplay for episode 4 of the Tsuburaya Productions series, "Ultra Q" (TV 1966-1967) and also directed episodes 4, 8, 22, 25, and 27. Additionally, he wrote the lyrics to the song "Fly On, Mothra" in 1971 under the pen name Koji Yuki. The same name had been used by Ishiro Honda, Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, and screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa when writing the lyrics to "Mothra's Song", heard in "Mothra" (1961). Kajita passed away at age 89 on August 18, 2013, due to illness.