Ultraman's face started as a real man's. In 1966 the designer Narita Toru took a plaster cast of the head of Furuya Satoshi, the actor who would play the hero, and the mask was built over it. Friends call Furuya "Bin".

Narita's original design was stricter than the one that reached television. It had no flashing light on the chest and no eye holes. The broadcaster, TBS, asked for the light, a way to show the hero in trouble, and Narita disliked it.

The eyes are a sadder story, and we have it only as Furuya tells it in his memoir. Just before the first shoot, with no way for Furuya to see out of the mask, Narita cut the openings himself. Furuya remembers his expression as complicated. Narita later told him, in Furuya's account, that as a designer he had failed.

Furuya vanishes, then a phone call

Furuya then vanished from view. His own company collapsed in 1991, and to pay off the debts he took work as a building cleaner. He rose to lead a team of about fifty at the Ministry of Agriculture in Kasumigaseki. Rumours went round that Ultraman's actor had died.

Furuya Satoshi at a 2019 fan convention

In autumn 2007, aged 64, he read in a newspaper that an exhibition of Narita's original art was on in Mitaka, on the western side of Tokyo. Narita had died, and his widow, Ryuri, was not there. Furuya left his business card and went home.

That night she phoned. In his words, she was in tears. "Bin-san, you came."

Furuya came back into public view, and in 2008 he took part in a signing event. In 2022 the film Shin Ultraman returned to Narita's original thinking, with no chest light and no eye holes. Its official site says the design was built from Furuya's body measurements. Ultraman is still Bin.

Ultraman is a trademark of Tsuburaya Productions. This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tsuburaya or Mr Furuya.

See it yourself

  • On screen. Shin Ultraman (2022) is the film that went back to Narita's design: no chest light, no eye holes.
  • On our anime tour. The private anime tour includes Nakano Broadway.

Hear it on the tour

Planning a visit?

Our Nakano Broadway guide explains the building, the noon opening problem and who it is worth the trip for.

Sources

Photo credits

  • Furuya Satoshi at a 2019 fan convention: Super Festivals / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, resized
  • Furuya Satoshi, the actor inside the first Ultraman suit, striking the hero's beam pose: Super Festivals / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, resized