Hide Hamabe

BIOGRAPHY

Hide Hamabe was born in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan on 3 December 1908.

During her high school days, Hamabe was doing well academically, and she was especially good at English. She was supposed to go to a national university in Nara Prefecture as a special student, but she declined due to various reasons, and she married Seizo Hamabe, a teacher at Fisheries University. Due to her husband’s work, she lived in Tottori and Yamaguchi prefectures after her marriage.

After her husband died in 1944, Hamabe worked in a station shop, raised four children, and sent them all to university. She moved to her hometown of Ebino, Miyazaki in 1957 after all her children had gone to university. After she returned home, she ran a small shop and lived alone.

When Hamabe was about 70, she hiked the Ebino high plateau with her granddaughter. Hide climbed the mountain with less effort than her granddaughter, who was in college at the time, and amazed her granddaughter with the strength of her legs and her stamina. Her hobby is a Japanese karuta game called “Hyakunin Isshu”. Around the age of 90, she was strong enough to compete in the tournament. She was full of intellectual curiosity, and at the age of 110, she could intuitively scroll through a smartphone screen and perform simple operations. At the age of 103, she moved to a nursing home.

In September 2019, Hamabe was reported as the second-oldest known living person in Miyazaki Prefecture, after Tame Yamaguchi of Hyuga. Following the death of 113-year-old Tame Yamaguchi on 6 September 2020, Hamabe was reported to be the oldest known living person in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Hide Hamabe passed away on 10 January 2023 in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan.