Ishirō Honda (本多 猪四郎, May 7, 1911 – February 28, 1993) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, universally recognized as a key figure in science fiction cinema and a pioneer of the *kaiju* (giant monster) genre. His fame is inextricably linked to his direction of the film *Godzilla* (1954), a Toho masterpiece that, in addition to launching a successful franchise, became a powerful metaphor for the atomic fears of post-war Japan. Throughout his prolific career with Toho, he directed numerous other *tokusatsu* (special effects) classics, including *Rodan* (1956), *Mothra* (1961), and *Destroy All Monsters* (1968), defining the aesthetic of Japanese monster cinema. In addition to the fantasy genre, he also ventured into war and drama films. In the final years of his life, he forged an important collaboration with Akira Kurosawa, working as a consultant and second unit director on masterpieces such as *Kagemusha* (1980), *Ran* (1985), and *Dreams* (1990). For his fundamental contribution to cinema, he received a posthumous special award at the 1994 Japan Academy Film Prize.