BIOGRAPHY

Misawo Okawa was born in Temma-ku (now Kita-ku), Osaka, Japan on March 5, 1898, as the fourth daughter of a kimono shop owner.

After graduating from elementary school, she helped out in the family business and excelled at knitting and sewing. In 1919, she married Yukio, who ran a rubber manufacturing company in Kobe City, and they had their first daughter in 1921, their first son in 1923, and their second daughter in 1926 .When her children were young, she and her family often went to Chinatown and Western restaurants in Kobe. She was a good cook and would learn recipes from the chefs, and she would cook her own recreations of Western and Chinese dishes, ice cream, and other dishes for her family to enjoy.

In 1931, her husband died of an illness at the age of 36, and she returned with her children from Kobe to her parents’ home in Osaka City in 1933 to help with the family business and raise them. Around the same time, Osaka City’s municipal subway system opened, and she often took the subway to go shopping at department stores. According to her grandson, Okawa was a big fan of the Japanese pro wrestler Giant Baba when she was in her 70s, and would clap her hands in delight whenever he beat a foreign wrestler.

Okawa moved into a nursing home at the age of 99. When she was 102, she broke her leg in a summer bon dance fall. Once discharged from the hospital, she trained herself in squatting exercises, holding on to the handrails in the nursing home hallway to regain the strength she had lost during her hospital stay, and she was able to walk again.

At age 116, she slept 15 hours a day and ate three complete meals. She was not fond of vegetables, but she loved mackerel sushi, gratin, ramen, meat, and sweets, and she believed that the secret to her longevity was “eating a feast”. Although her sight and hearing were failing at the time, on days when she was feeling well, she could maneuver her wheelchair by herself and move freely around the nursing home.

On March 5, 2015, she celebrated her 117th birthday, and was quoted as saying: “Life was short. It went by so fast.” When asked about the happiest time in her life, she immediately replied that it was when she got married.

Around 21 March 2015, she became ill and refused to eat. A little over a week later, on April 1, 2015, surrounded by her grandchildren and the nursing home staff, she passed away in Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, Japan at the age of 117 years and 27 days. At the time of her death, her daughter was 94 years old and her son was 92 years old. After her death, Gertrude Weaver (also born 1898) became the oldest living person, though only for five days.

RECOGNITION

Okawa is the fourth-oldest validated person ever from Japan and was also the oldest living person in the world from the death of 116-year-old Jiroemon Kimura until her death on 1 April 2015. She was also the oldest person ever from Japan until 1 September 2017, when her age was surpassed by Nabi Tajima. She currently ranks as the oldest validated person ever from Osaka Prefecture, the fourth-oldest Japanese person ever (behind Kane Tanaka, Tajima, and Chiyo Miyako), and the 10th-oldest person on record. She was also the oldest living woman after the death of Koto Okubo on 12 January 2013 until her death over two years later. She was also the last surviving Japanese person born in the 1800s.

ATTRIBUTION

GALLERY