BIOGRAPHY

Tsuji was born in Arita, Saga Prefecture, Japan, on 6 August 1906 as the youngest of five children – and the only daughter – born to her parents. At 21 years old, in 1927, she married Shigetoshi Tsuji, who lived across the road from her. The couple had five children.

Tsuji worked in her husband’s family paint production business, aiding in making paint used in Arita ware, a traditional Japanese porcelain. At the age of 75, she was awarded a POLA Traditional Culture Award for her efforts to maintain the secret manufacturing techniques that had been passed down through the Tsuji family for generations.

Tsuji had a heart attack in the 1990s, and had to have a pacemaker fitted as a result. Ten years later, her pacemaker’s battery ran out, but she still lived to become Arita’s first supercentenarian in 2017. She died on 4 March 2020 at the age of 113 years, 211 days, as the second-oldest person in Saga Prefecture after Shigeyo Nakachi.

RECOGNITION

Tsuji was listed anonymously in Saga’s prefectural statistics every Keiro no hi (Respect for the Aged Day) in September until 2018. Her name was confirmed after her death.

ATTRIBUTION

GALLERY