Josh Otsuka, founding guitarist with breakout Japanese bluegrass band, Bluegrass 45, died at his home in Kobe, Japan on January 26. He was 80 years of age.
Born Tsuyoshi Otsuka on July 26, 1944, he grew up in a post-war Japan heavily influenced by the US occupation. Like many young people there, he was drawn by the American bluegrass and folk music broadcast on Armed Forces Radio. He came to love Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and the Country Gentlemen, egged on by his older brother, Yukata, whose musical tastes had a strong impact on Josh and middle brother Akira.
The possibilities of bluegrass in Japan were made clear to Josh and Akira when Yukata’s band, The Bluegrass Ramblers, won the National Championship on the popular radio program, Battle of the College Bands, in 1965.
Starting at Kobe University in 1964, Josh studied English. During his sophomore year he formed The Bluegrass Travelers. playing banjo. At school he formed a Pop Music Club and served as its first president. Naturally bluegrass was represented. In later years there were enough bluegrass groups at the school that a separate Bluegrass Club was formed. Such clubs are quote popular with young people, and a good many bluegrass groups get started this way in Japan to this day.
A major turning point was the establishment of the Lost City Coffee House in Kobe in 1966, opened to emulate the ones in New York City during the folk music boom. Josh and Akira both spent a lot of time there, where bluegrass, old time, and contemporary folk music were played. Open jamming was encouraged, and they both learned valuable skills there, as well as meeting other young Japanese players like Toshio and Saburo Watanabe, Hsueh-Cheng ‘Ryo’ Liao, and Chien-Hua Lee. They also jammed with Shoji Tabuchi and Kenji Nozak, who was the owner of Lost City.
Akira, who has lived in the US most of his life, explained how Josh switched to guitar.
“When Shoji and Kenji decided to tour the summer of 1967, they asked us young boys to keep the music going at the Lost City, and eventually Bluegrass 45 was formed. Josh was a banjo player with Bluegrass Travelers, and that was his love, but Sab wanted to play banjo, so Josh switched to guitar and became a lead vocalist. Initially it was not a formal band, but just a fun band that played only at the Lost City.
In 1970 some of us were graduating from college soon so we recorded a self-produced and self-financed LP, Run Mountain – we thought we had to quit playing and work for living. The most important tune on the album is Take Five by Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond. I don’t think many bluegrass people were listening to jazz back then, with the exception of Roger Sprung.
Ironically Dick Freeland of Rebel Records saw us when he came to the Osaka World Fair that year and invited us to do an US tour in 1971!!”
The guys feared that this tour would never happen, as they could only communicate with Freeland by postal mail, which was quite slow, until he returned to Japan as manager of a tour with Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys. Their show in Kobe reunited the band with Freeland, and plans were made for a US tour in June of 1971. Two days after leaving Japan they were on stage at Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN.
Anyone who has watched the classic film Bluegrass Country Soul, shot later that summer at the Camp Springs bluegrass festival, will recall the thunderous ovations that greeted the band when they hit the stage and after each song. They had developed some very funny routines back at Lost City that translated quite well to the larger audience, especially with their questionable English.
While in the States, Bluegrass 45 recorded a pair of albums for Rebel, the second produced by John Duffey, both long out of print.
After the 1971 tour, most of the young members of the band returned to their regular jobs, though Josh and Akira put a new version of the band together to tour the US again in 1972. There they recorded a third album for Rebel.
Hiroshi Kitano shared what happened next for Josh.
“It was impossible to make a living just touring the States during the summer months, and Bluegrass 45 disbanded after the 1972 tour. Josh got a day job at a trading company, however, his love for bluegrass never went away. His fans were still hanging around the Lost City, and the owner, Kenji, encouraged and urged Josh to start anew.
So Josh recruited super pickers in the area: Ichiyo Kishimoto, a fiddler from Kyoto; Hiroshi Kitano, a banjo geek in Kobe; Hidemichi Hirai, a mandolinist who had performed with Josh in the past; and Masahiko Ito, electric and upright bass player. Masahiko was a member of the Lost City Cats who toured the US in 1973, following in Bluegrass 45’s footsteps, but he was also playing with rock groups.
They started rehearsing at Josh’s, he named the band Leaves of Grass, and they started playing out. Probably they were the first bluegrass band in Japan that featured an electric bass, and their repertoire included songs by The Allman Brothers, The Outlaws, The Eagles, and other currently popular groups. So when they appeared at the Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival, older bluegrass fans complained saying, ‘That is a rock band!’, but the young audience loved them.
For years many young bluegrassers passed through the Leaves of Grass and learned under Josh’s direction, just like Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. It started as leaves of grass but those seeds spread out, and now bluegrass is covering all of Japan.”
Josh took a break for a while from keeping a group together, but in 1986 he reformed Leaves of Grass with himself on guitar, Shin Akimoto on mandolin, Sayuri Tsuchida Akimoto on fiddle, Hiroshi Kitano on banjo, and Bluegrass 45 bandmate Toshio Watanabe on bass.
They played bars, restaurants, and other venues around Kobe and Osaka, as well as festivals, especially Toshio and Sab Watanabe’s annual Takarazuka Festival. They performed all the old Bluegrass 45 material, as well as whatever requests might be thrown their way.
Shin picks it up here…
“After the huge Kobe Earthquake hit in 1995, Josh and I started hosting a bluegrass program from radio station FMYY, which was located in the most damaged area of Nagata, Kobe. While hosting there, they started a Ragpapas’ Jugband with Tetsuyoshi Katsuki (a main character of the band who was hosting other music programs at the same station), Kanda Shusaku, and Shigeharu Sawamura. They had the honor to perform with Jim Kweskin and many famous Japanese folk legends. They made regular appearances at Yokohama Jug Band Festival, as well as TV appearances, and they were becoming well known.
Josh also performed as a solo singer/songwriter, and supported other musician outside of bluegrass.”
Bluegrass 45 reunited with all the original members in 1996, and again in 2006, and toured the US both times. They celebrated their 50th anniversary as a band in 2017 with a performance on the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards show, and a full set at the Red Hat Amphitheater the next day in Raleigh, NC.
When Josh turned 80 on July 26, 2024, Akira created this birthday video featuring a wealth of personal photos from their childhood, and their years playing bluegrass together.
We express our deep gratitude to Akira Otsuka, Shin Akimoto, and Hiroshi Kitano, whose contributions have greatly enriched this remembrance.
R.I.P., Josh Otsuka.
