Kita Takeo was an art director and producer of Japanese films and President of Toho Built. He was born in Osaka. He was the first deputy director of the Japan Film and Television Art Directors Association. His younger brother Kita Tatsuo is also an art director.

In 1926, he graduated from Ichioka Junior High School and joined Nikkatsu. He left Nikkatsu six years later, in 1932, and became a freelancer.

Kita worked as an assistant for directors Kubo Kazuo and Aoyanagi Nobuo before falling in with Honda Ishiro. Kita would serve as art director for many of Honda’s science fiction films throughout the 50s and 60s. He also moved up the ranks in Toho, ascending to Toho Production General Manager in 1961 and Toho Building President and Representative Director a year after that. He served as the first director of the Japan Film and Television Art Director Association when it was established in 1939.

(Source: kisskh, Godzilla Cineaste) Edit Biography