Koichi Shibata
Mayor, City of Okazaki

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Osamu Uchida Jazz Collection website.

The City of Okazaki, located in central Aichi, birthplace of Tokugawa Iyeyasu, was the castle town from which the Mikawa Samurai-who paved the way for the establishment of the Edo Shogunate-originated. With its rich history and unique tradition, Okazaki was officially designated a Core City in April 2003, and continues in its pursuit of progress as the administrative center of the Nishimikawa region, as well as a leader in education, culture, and industry.
Osamu Uchida-Dr. Jazz-was born in this city, and for many years ran a surgical hospital here which he himself founded. Shortly after the war, in the early 1950s, he began to collect foreign 10-inch LP records (which were extremely difficult to obtain in Japan at the time) and original records from the modern jazz period.

Dr. Uchida continued to expand his record collection, and he eventually founded a jazz club called the "Nagoya Hot Club." He presided over the "Nagoya Yamaha Jazz Club" an unprecedented 150 times over a period of 33 years, sparking great enthusiasm and passion for the development of jazz in Japan. He also supported talented but struggling jazz musicians, and there were even instances where he permitted long-term stays in his own hospital in Okazaki. In the hospital, there is a studio known as "The Doctor's Studio" where it is said that many top Japanese musicians practiced and rehearsed.

In this way Dr. Uchida continued his heart-warming interaction with Japanﾕs top musicians and prominent jazz players worldwide: at times as a jazz enthusiast, at times as a physician. The number of young, up-and-coming musicians he has discovered and helped, as supportive as a parent, are countless. Hearing these stories has left a significant impression on me, and I would like to convey my deep respect for Dr. Uchida, a great man who truly supports and nurtures others.

In 1993, when Dr. Uchida closed his hospital, he donated 12,308 records and the priceless original tapes recorded in the "Doctor's Studio" to the City of Okazaki. Since then, the City has been busy with the preservation of this collection, constructing a giant record database and converting the original tapes to digital format, as well as organizing record concerts. An audio room where visitors can listen to rare jazz recordings has also been established in Okazaki City.

The opening of this website marks ten years since Dr. Uchida donated his jazz collection, and is a project begun in accordance with the City's plans for the Osamu Uchida Jazz Collection. I hope that visitors to this website will take full advantage of the information herein and learn about the City of Okazaki and its close ties with jazz. I hope that the site will spark further interest in the Osamu Uchida Jazz Collection, and, most importantly, I hope our visitors will have a pleasant, relaxing time reading the many stories that have been incorporated into this website.