Mamoru Uchida


Mamoru Uchida was an ophthalmologist who worked for leprosy patients at Kyushu Sanatorium, Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium, and Matsuoka Hoyoen Sanatorium. He taught leprosy patients tanka, in these sanatoriums. Later, he studied social welfare as a professor at Kumamoto Junior College. He extensively studied the history of leprosy, and presented many documents to the Kumamoto Prefectural Library as Uchida Library; 338 items were shown at an exhibition of Hansen's disease and literature in 2003.

Pseudonym

He used the name "Morito Uchida " in literature.

Biography

In 1900, he was born in Kikuchi District, Kumamoto Prefecture. He graduated from Kumamoto Medical School in 1924 and entered the Kyushu Sanatorium. In 1934, he became a Ph.D. for his study on murine leprosy. He found a large house where 23% of mice were infected with murine leprosy. He studied leprosy patients around the Honmyoji temple. In three sanatoriums, he taught tanka which consists of five units. He helped many tanka poets in compiling their tanka books.
After the war, he returned to Kumamoto and in 1950, became a professor at Kumamoto Junior College. He studied social welfare and wrote several books. He was the president of the 1965 Congress of social welfare association. He died in 1982.

Tanka

Uchida found that patients with leprosy who led miserable life had found hopes and pleasure in making tanka. He helped many tanka poets in compiling their tanka books. And the books he wrote and complied amounted to 40 books.

Medical achievements

He wrote 34 medical papers in Japanese.
He wrote many books in Japanese, recorded in the Japanese version of Wikipedia.