BIOGRAPHY

Tanabe was born in Fukuei Village, now Nichinan Town in Japan’s Tottori Prefecture, on 20 October 1888. He was the eldest son of Buhei and Michiyo Tanabe. One of his younger brothers, Yoshitaka Itō (1894 – 1996), was the second president of Itōya, a long-established stationery store with its main premises located in Ginza, Tokyo, and lived to be 102 years old.

After graduating from upper elementary school in Hiroshima Prefecture, Tanabe was a post office worker, and later became a city employee in Kure City in 1908. He self-studied and passed the civil service examination, and was promoted to a city official in Kure City.

In 1912, Tanabe was hired as a city employee in Tokyo, but because he had no academic background, he was sent to Kyoto University. However, he was soon recalled to Tokyo due to a change in mayoralty in Tokyo, and was involved in drafting various regulations for the establishment of the Tokyo Municipal Research Institute.

When the Great Kanto Earthquake occurred in 1923, Tanabe set up a relief department and was instrumental in providing relief to the victims. Later, as one of the founder members of the General Council for Reconstruction, he prepared a reconstruction plan and conducted urban planning surveys. When the reconstruction work after the earthquake had settled down, he returned to Kyoto University and graduated at the age of 37. He was married and had four children.

In 1946, after the war’s end, Tanabe returned to the Tokyo Municipal Research Council, and after serving as executive director, chairman, and advisor, he retired in 1978 at the age of 90. He then continued to serve as an advisor to the Election Promotion Association until he was 99 years old.

From around the age of 80, Tanabe moved from the city centre to his second daughter’s house in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and even in his centenarian years, he was still healthy enough to go on trips with his younger brother, five years his junior. At the age of 103, he journeyed to Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture. The brothers penned letters and diaries, complete with illustrations, on their holidays, and the illustrated diaries of the brothers’ trips filled three notebooks. After Tanabe was hospitalised in 1992 at the age of 104 due to a back injury, he became less keen on travelling.

From around the age of 80, Tanabe moved from the city centre to his second daughter’s house in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and even in his centenarian years, he was still healthy enough to go on trips with his younger brother, five years his junior. At the age of 103, he journeyed to Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture. The brothers penned letters and diaries, complete with illustrations, on their holidays, and the illustrated diaries of the brothers’ trips filled three notebooks. After Tanabe was hospitalised in 1992 at the age of 104 due to a back injury, he became less keen on travelling.

RECOGNITION

Following the death of Denzō Ishizaki on 29 April 1999, Tanabe became the oldest living man in Japan. Upon his own death, the title passed to Yukichi Chuganji (1889 – 2003).

ATTRIBUTION

• 歴史が眠る多磨霊園
• “輝く100歳 一世紀を生きる人生の達人たち 百歳・人生” – AERA magazine, 14 September 1993

GALLERY