BIOGRAPHY

Chie Miyazaki was born in Kōchi City, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan, on 17 January 1910, as the second daughter of five children. During her teenage years, like many girls her age, she worked for several years at mansions as a babysitter and domestic worker.

At the age of 23, she married Kentaro, a fisherman from Urado Bay. The couple lived by the bay and had five children. She would help her husband at his work by rowing the oar while he was casting the net. However, she didn’t prefer fish as a food since she disliked their smell.

According to her second daughter and her granddaughter – who lived with her in her later years, she would often tell them stories about the Edo period samurai and wartime stories she had heard from her grandfather while she was a child. She loved to sing even as a centenarian, and prided herself on being able to sing many songs from the Meiji and Showa eras. Around the age of 104, she underwent a surgery that left her bedridden.

Chie Miyazaki passed away in Kōchi City, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan, on 16 December 2021, at the age of 111.

RECOGNITION

On 6 June 2020, following the death of 111-year-old Hideko Sogawa, she became the oldest living person in Kōchi Prefecture.

Following her passing, Chiyoko Kagiyama became the oldest living person in the Prefecture.

Her age was verified by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW), as well as Ryohei Asano and Yu Li, and validated by LongeviQuest on 21 June 2023.

ATTRIBUTION

* “きょう　敬老の日　県内100歳以上836人　明治生まれ4人” – Kochi Shimbun, 21 September 2020

* “県内100歳以上874人　きょう敬老の日　5年連続最多更新” – Kochi Shimbun, 20 September 2021

* “昨年まで最高齢宮崎さん（高知市）も１１１歳で死去” – Kochi Shimbun, 18 September 2022

GALLERY