A company official in a ski resort area of Hokkaido was elated over the expected wave of foreign tourists pouring into Japan, but he quickly expressed a sense of caution.
HASHIMA, Gifu Prefecture A grandmother’s gift led to Eito Hara’s decades-long fascination with “kaiju” monsters, his renown as a sculptor and alarmed looks from people shocked by his passion for the creatures.
A special exhibition featuring about 10 lifelike sculptures of kaiju and dinosaurs created by Hara from newspapers and other everyday materials are on display at the Hashima Movie Museum here.
Scattered across the venue are heads modeled after a carnivorous allosaurus, monsters from live-action movies, including Gamera and Gyaos, and other paper sculptures.
Hara, 65, who lives in Gifu, was born in Gujo in the prefecture. His obsession with kaiju started after he asked his grandmother to buy him a Godzilla toy when he was a child.