BIOGRAPHY

Suekiku Miyanaga was born in Osumi, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan on 7 April 1884.

At the age of 24, she married Aiemon, who was a farmer in a village about 8 km from her birthplace, and she had four sons and seven daughters.

She was good at singing and playing the shamisen from a young age and was always popular with her performances and songs at events held in the village.

At the age of 70, she lost her husband, and at the age of 108, she fell ill, became bedridden, and entered a nursing home. In July 1997, at the age of 113, she suffered a stroke that left her right side paralyzed and speech impaired. In September of the same year, she underwent surgery for a gastric fistula.

Suekiku Miyanaga died in a hospital in Osumi, Kagoshima, Japan on 20 June 1998 at the age of 114 years, 74 days. Only two of her children were still alive after her death.

RECOGNITION

On 5 May 1997, she became the oldest living Japanese person after the death of Sue Utagawa.

At the time of her death, she was the second-oldest living validated person in the world, after Sarah Knauss.

She was the oldest validated person ever from Kagoshima Prefecture until Nabi Tajima surpassed her age on 18 October 2014.

ATTRIBUTION

GALLERY