title

 

Chitose Uchida collection

 

general material designation

 

objects
date

 

1921-

 

scope and content

 

The collection consists of a tea set which was given by Chitose to Grace Tucker when she had her twin daughters Elizabeth and Marjorie Walker in 1921. Grace married Leslie Walker. Grace and Chitose were both teachers and became friends. The set consists of 4 sauceres, 2 tea cups, 1 teapot, 1 milk dispenser and 1 sugar bowl. The set is Kutani Yaki, a well known brand of pottery in Japan.

 

biography

 

Chitose Uchida was the third child of Chiyoshichi and Kinuko Uchida from Toyoka mura, Kita Katsushika gun, Saitama Ken in Japan. Chiyoshichi was born in April 1858 and came to Canada the same year as Tomekichi Homma and like most Japanese men, worked at Hastings Mill. He earned $75 a month working from 7 in the morning until 6 in the evening, six days a week. Later he opened a general store at 104 Hastings Street. When the lease expired, he purchased an old brick building at 411-437 Powell Street. For a very short time 437 Powell was used as a 'hospital' for newly arrived Japanese immigrants with trachoma, an eye disease. Chiyoshichi was an advocate for Canadian citizenship and was one of the first men to be naturalized. He passed away on January 22, 1913 at the age of 54.

 

Kinu Uchida was born September 25, 1872 in Hiroshima Ken. She was the youngest of 5 girls, three of whom came to Canada. Her sisters Yoko Oya and Mrs. Ima Suzuki were the first Japanese women to come to Canada.

 

Kinu arrived in 1889 at the age of 16 and married in 1890. Their first daughter Hatsuye, born in 1891 was the first Nisei girl in Vancouver. She worked alongside her husband in the import business and would go to the customs office to make sure officers were not setting too high a price on shoyu and miso coming from Japan. After the Asian Riot of 1907, Kinu appeared before the McKenzie King Commission with all her receipts for the repair of the damage to the property. Frequently, she was called to be a midwife, as Japanese women did not like going to a hospital. After her death, Kinu's son, Dr. Matasaburo Uchida set up the Kinu Uchida memorial scholarship at UBC, as she was an advocate of higher education. Dr. Matasaburo Uchida became a doctor who eventually practiced on Powell Street.

 


 

Chitose, born in 1895, became the first female graduate from UBC in 1916. She was schooled in the first makeshift school in Nihonmachi. In 1897, Ranzo Kishimoto and his wife Yoko started teaching in a home on Powell Street. When he passed away, Gomei Asano took over classes at the rear of Ikeda Rooming house on Powell Street. As the class expanded, they moved to above the Asahi Rice Mills, then behind Mr. Matsubayashi's Jewellry Store. She became a teacher and since she could not find work in BC, moved to Alberta and found work in a rural country school near Hespero, west of Red Deer. She returned during WWII to teach in Taylor Lake.

 

number

 

2003.2

 

organisation

 

Nikkei National Museum
access

 

Open