Gojira (or Godzilla) is undoubtedly one of Japan’s greatest icons. The Japanese monster first appeared on screen in the movie 「ゴジラ (Gojira)」in 1954. He was called Godzilla in the English dubbing. Since then Gojira has starred in over 30 Japanese films, multiple American films, a trilogy of animated films and an animated series.
Gojira was depicted as a metaphor for the use of nuclear weapons and Dr. Serizawa, one of the main characters in the original film, makes a clear speech against the use of weapons of mass destruction, even using them against the monster, because of the consequences of the rulers having the possibility of using them in the future.
As time went by, the character would lose his image as an icon of the atomic massacre of 1945, and would go through several stages, becoming, at the end of the Showa period, the hero of the film by defending Japan from other monsters.
While Godzilla is an icon of Japan, he is especially famous in Shinjuku. It is very common to see buses with Godzilla images that say “Shinjuku loves Godzilla.”
Godzilla head Shinjuku:
It is made to original scale (12 meters). It weighs 80 tons and is 50 meters above the ground, which is supposed to have a real height according to how it is represented in the movies.
Its design belongs to “Godzilla VS Mothra” that was taken to the movies in 1992. It is currently a tourist attraction.
It is possible to access the head from a terrace of the famous Gracery hotel in Shinjuku, installed inside the Shinjuku Toho building.
Editors of Time Out Tokyo included the Godzilla head in their 2019 list of the city’s “best public art sculptures”.
Kabukichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Photo Taken: April 01, 2024
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