Uchima was born 1921 in Stockton, California. In 1940, he went to Tokyo to study architecture at Waseda University. After the war, Uchima met the sosaku hanga artist Onchi Koshiro, and began to venture into abstract woodblock printing. He held his first solo exhibition at Yoseido Gallery (Tokyo) in 1955. In 1960, he relocated to New York, where he received twice a Guggenheim Fellowship for print artists (1962 and 1970). Uchima taught at Sarah Lawrence College, and held a position as an adjunct professor of printmaking at Columbia University. He died in 2000, aged 79.

Uchima, who had his roots both in Japan and the United States, is known to have advanced traditional techniques derived from ukiyo-e printmaking into what he called “weaves of colors.” This approach was used for his series Forest Byobu where he layered 45 color plates to create one print. The vivid colors, delicate gradations and dense layering of these works exude a refined sense of harmony. Uchima’s prints are full of a fresh and modern sensibility, contributing to their lasting appeal. Major collections holding his works are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.