BIOGRAPHY

Koto Uemura was born in Miyakonojō, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, on 1 March 1898. Uemura married into a farming family in 1919 around the age of 21. She was engaged in agricultural work. She and her husband had seven children; four daughters and three sons.

In July 2000, at the age of 102, she moved into a nursing home for the elderly in Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture. In September 2009, she was visited by city officials at her nursing home and given a congratulatory letter from Miyazaki Prefecture in Celebration of Respect for the Aged Day. Uemura’s nursing home reported that she had been hospitalized only twice during her nine-year stay and that she had no specific health problems. According to the staff, she often expressed the sentiment, “You should take care of others because you never know when others are going to help you.” As of 2009, Uemura’s husband and her two eldest sons had passed away. During this period, she had ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Koto Uemura passed away at her nursing home in Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, on 21 January 2010, at the age of 111 years, 326 days.

RECOGNITION

On 19 June 2009, following the death of 113-year-old Tomoji Tanabe, she became the oldest living person in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Upon her passing, she was succeeded as the Prefecture’s oldest living person by Sumie Gomagano.

ATTRIBUTION

* “敬老の日前に県、最高齢・上村さんに祝い状” – Mainichi Shimbun, 12 September 2009

* “111歳上村さん元気/県が最高齢たたえ祝い状/宮崎市” – Miyazaki Nichinichi Shimbun, 12 September 2009

GALLERY