Chuta Oguchi

Chuta Oguchi went to Ueda primary school and then attended Saisei Gakusha, a private medical school in Tokyo. He graduated in 1893 and subsequently turned to ophthalmology, training with Professor Tetsuzo Suda (1848-1894) and then at the postgraduate course under Professor Jujiro Komoto (1859-1938) at the Imperial Universiy of Tokyo. In 1895, Oguchi volunteered for military service and worked at many hospitals in Japan and with the First Guards Infantry Regiment in Taiwan. He was decorated for his contribution during the Sino-Japanese war.

From 1896 Oguchi worked at the Nagano Public Hospital and then at the Tokyo Army Hospital from December 1897. After a brief period at the Kokufudai Army Hospital he came to Shonan Hospital in Yokosuka as chief of the department of ophthalmology. In 1903 he held the same position at the Tainan Government Hospital, Taiwan, and served in the Russo-Japanese War between 1904 and 1905.

After the Russo-Japanese War he wrote a 6-volume book "Eye diseases and injuries during the war 1904-1905" under the directorship of Dr. Manao Hori (1860-1929). The statistics part of this book was published in the German language (Augenverletzungen im Japanischen Heere während des letzten Krieges, in: Beiträge zur Augenheilkunde, 1913, 83:75-303).

In 1911 He produced original pseudoisochromatic charts for colour blindness in 1911 while he was working at the Army Hospital. That year he became a faculty member in the army medical school, and the following year he was appointed professor of ophthalmology at the Southern Manchurian Medical School in Nanmanigakudo. Later that year he went to Heidelberg and Munich for further studies. In Heidelberg he worked with Professor August Wagenmann (1863-1955) and at the University of Munich under Professor Carl von Hess (1863-1923) in 1912-1914.

Upon his return in 1914 he assumed his former teaching position and in 1916 he received the degree Doctor of Medical Sciences from Tokyo University.

In 1919 Oguchi was appointed associate professor at the Aichi Preferectural Medical School and head of the department of ophthalmology. In 1922 he was appointed the Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of Nagoya University and worked there until his retirement in 1939, when he received the title of Professor Emeritus of the University.

Oguchi delivered a special lecture at the 40th Congress of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society (Ocular Trauma) in 1936, and served as the 41st Congress President of the Society in 1937. He also served as a Member of the International Council of Ophthalmology 1929-1937. He was granted the Japan Academy of Science Award in 1933 for his work on Oguchi's disease. In recognition of his service, the Government conferred on him the Second Order of the Sacred Treasures.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper, Switzerland, for information submitted.

• Ueber die Wirkung von Blutinjektionen in den Glaskörper nebst Bemerkungen über die sogenannte Retinitis proliferans. Doctoral thesis.
  Albrecht von Graefes Archiv für Ophthalmologie, Berlin, 1913, 84: 446-520.
• 50 years History of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society. Biographical:
• Isidor Fischer, publisher:
  Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte der letzten fünfzig Jahre.
  Berlin – Wien, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1932.
• Peter Beighton & Gretha Beighton:
  The Person Behind the Syndrome. Springer-Verlag London Limited, 1997.
• Saiichi Mishima:
  Oguchi, Chuta.
  In: Jean-Paul Wayenborgh, editor: IBBO. International Biography and Bibliography of Ophthalmologists and Vision Scientists. Volume 2. Oostende 2002.
  Hirschberg History of ophtalmology. The monographs ; volume 7: 172-173 [with photo].