I just learned that
Teruyoshi Nakano passed away on Monday last week at the age of 86.
He was assistant SFX director under Eiji Tsuburaya from 1959 until Tsuburaya's death in 1970, on such Toho films as "Secret of the Telegian", "Gorath", "Matango", "Atragon", "Frankenstein Conquers the World", "War of the Gargantuas" and "King Kong Escapes", as well as the Godzilla films "King Kong vs. Godzilla", "Mothra vs. Godzilla", "Ghidorah, the three-headed Monster", "Invasion of the Astro-Monster", "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep", "Destroy All Monsters" and "Godzilla's Revenge".
On those last two, due to Tsuburaya's illness at the time, Nakano was pretty much the proper SFX director, but leaving the title in the credits to Tsuburaya in his master's honor.
After Tsuburaya's death, Nakano took over as Toho's main SFX director on movies like "Submersion of Japan", "Prophecies of Nostradamus", "ESPY", "The War in Space" and "Princess from the Moon". For the Godzilla series, he directed the FX scenes for "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster", "Godzilla vs. Gigan", "Godzilla vs. Megalon", "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla", "Terror of Mechagodzilla" and "Return of Godzilla". He also directed the SFX scenes for Toho's superhero TV show "Zone Fighter", which included guest appearances of Godzilla, Gigan and King Ghidorah.