BIOGRAPHY

Shino Mori was born in Amakusa City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan on November 09, 1903 according to Japan’s family register. However, she claimed to have been two months earlier than this officially registered date on September 09. She was the third daughter of eight children.

When Mori was 24, she married a local man named Akiyoshi, who was two years her senior. They had five children together, but tragedy struck when he passed away when she was 32, leaving her to raise their five children alone while engaged in agricultural work. This work, which involved carrying around hefty sacks of rice on her shoulders, and in an age where oxen, not tractors, were used to cultivate the land, was not without its difficulties, but while such intense manual labor must have been trying at times for a woman of such slender frame, nobody ever heard Mori complain.

At some point, she lost two of her children to illness.

Mori was an avid gateball player and accrued an impressive collection of commemorative letters and medals throughout her life. Playing became difficult in old age as her former teammates began to pass away, but she always looked back on her sporting career with pride.

Commenting on life surrounded by family and relatives while living with her oldest son and his wife at the age of 102, she said “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.” Other than being slightly hard of hearing, she was said to be in excellent health and was still capable of standing on her own—shocking those around her with her remarkably straight posture when she did. She had excellent eyesight and was still capable of threading a thread through the eye of a needle. She was said to look twenty years her junior.

Mori was still actively engaged in farming work on the mandarin orchard behind her house—spanning roughly 3,000 square meters and boasting a whopping 200 citrus trees—at the age of 102. She woke up every day at 6am, made herself a lunchbox, and worked on the orchard from 8am until evening. Her son expressed his gratitude for her keeping the orchard neat and tidy with her weeding. A TV crew visiting the house to make a program about Mori were astonished by how easily she made her way up the steep hill leading to the orchard, and how quickly she made her way back down it when she was finished.

Mori was still actively engaged in farming work on the mandarin orchard behind her house—spanning roughly 3,000 square meters and boasting a whopping 200 citrus trees—at the age of 102. She woke up every day at 6am, made herself a lunchbox, and worked on the orchard from 8am until evening. Her son expressed his gratitude for her keeping the orchard neat and tidy with her weeding. A TV crew visiting the house to make a program about Mori were astonished by how easily she made her way up the steep hill leading to the orchard, and how quickly she made her way back down it when she was finished.

RECOGNITION

Her age was validated by the Gerontology Research Group on 6 August 2015, and was later recognized by LongeviQuest.

ATTRIBUTION

* “世界最高齢!! 女子アナはなんと 111歳” – Amakusa TV
https://www.amakusa.tv/newscas_3.html
* “森シノさん（もり・しの）”- Amakusa TV
https://www.amakusa.tv/okuyami_mori.html
* “[追悼抄]「世界最高齢」女子アナウンサー 森シノさん” – Yomiuri Shimbun, November 7, 2015, Tokyo morning edition

GALLERY