Biography
In the early 1970s, before VCRs or CDs existed, patriotic Americans anxious over Japan's expanding economy often repeated a familiar refrain: those Japanese could copy anything, from McDonald's burgers to advanced technology, even reproducing American bluegrass music with their own ensembles. Global cross-pollination of sounds has since rendered the notion of a Japanese bluegrass band far less surprising. Nevertheless, the appearance of Bluegrass 45 turned plenty of heads, prompting specialty retailers to spin the ensemble's records as surprise tests that left listeners unable to identify the musicians' homeland. Rebel Records executive Charles Freeland arranged the group's initial American tour after encountering them during a 1970 vacation. Brothers Saburo and Toshio Watanabe had launched the project two years earlier, spurring one another to master U.S. bluegrass techniques; Saburo first replicated Charlie Monroe's guitar approach, then adopted the banjo upon hearing a 1965 Flatt & Scruggs album. The unit began as a high-school combo, yet the name Bluegrass 45 emerged only after Josh and Akira Otsuka joined later. Their debut LP, Run Mountain, appeared in 1970. The following year Bluegrass 45 became the first Japanese bluegrass act to perform across the United States and Canada, and quite possibly the sole ensemble in the genre's history to reach the Grand Ole Opry on its maiden international outing. Rebel subsequently issued two further collections, Bluegrass 45 and Caravan. Personnel has shifted across decades, yet the band marked its 25th anniversary with another U.S. trek in 1996, dating that milestone from the 1971 tour rather than the original formation. Both Saburo Watanabe and Akira Otsuka have sustained busy careers within and beyond the group as performers, promoters, authors, and distributors. Saburo founded B.O.M. Service in 1971, Japan's first substantial bluegrass distribution firm, then launched the Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival the next year, an event that grew into the nation's largest and most enduring bluegrass gathering. He produced Tony Rice's inaugural Red Clay album in 1973 and a New Tradition session in 1976, began publishing Moonshiner magazine in 1983, and substituted on bass for Tater Tate with the Bluegrass Boys the following year. In the 1990s the International Bluegrass Music Association bestowed multiple distinctions upon him, among them an Award of Merit in 1995 and Print Media Personality of the Year in 1998; he also joined the IBMA Board of Directors as secretary in 1995. Akira Otsuka relocated to the United States, where he has performed extensively on mandolin alongside Cathy Fink, the Blue Apples, the John Starling Band, Grazz Matazz, Big Hillbilly Bluegrass, Lex Price Jr., and Outlet while contributing regularly to bluegrass journalism and technology writing through album notes, Bluegrass Unlimited columns, and a volume on MIDI recording fundamentals. Mandolinist Tara Inoue joined more recently after moving to Johnson City, TN, in the late 1990s and collaborating with Jeff White, Peter Rowan, Frank Wakefield, and Grammy winner Allison Brown. The group's signature addition to the repertoire remains "Fuji Mountain Breakdown."