BIOGRAPHY

Yuriko Tsurumaru was born in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, on 14 July 1913, as the eldest of three siblings. During her childhood, her father, a police officer, was transferred to Miyazaki Prefecture, prompting the family to move there. After graduating from Nobeoka Women’s High School, she attended Miyazaki Women’s Normal School. Upon graduation, she became an elementary school teacher in Kobayashi City, Miyazaki Prefecture. She married in her early 20s and temporarily retired from teaching. However, after her husband passed away at the age of 36, she returned to teaching and continued until she retired at 61. She had four children.

During her teaching career, she commuted daily, crossing the mountains for an hour and a half each way, which helped her build physical strength. Even after retiring, she remained active until around the age of 80, participating in senior citizens’ clubs and taking Japanese dance lessons with local friends, often performing at community festivals. After she stopped dancing, she took up flower pressing as a hobby, enjoying it alongside her second daughter, who lived next door. She remained remarkably healthy throughout her life, with the exception of cataract surgery at age 99. At 104, she broke her femur, but after surgery to repair it with a bolt, she was able to walk again.

At the age of 106, when asked about the secret of her longevity, she said: “live in peace and eat a lot.” When she lived at home, she loved reading newspapers and would spend the entire day absorbed in them. If she encountered a kanji she didn’t understand, she would look it up in the dictionary, continuing to expand her knowledge even past the age of 100. After moving into a nursing home, she enjoyed exchanging letters with her second daughter daily, a tradition she maintained until she was 110 years old.

As of September 2024, she had three surviving children, four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson.

Tsurumaru passed away on November 7, 2024, at the age of 111 years and 116 days in Kobayashi City, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

RECOGNITION

On 21 September 2019, the Mayor of Kobayashi visited Tsurumaru at her nursing home, bringing with him an arrangement of chrysanthemums cultivated by local growers. He would keep visiting her every September.

On 19 August 2023, following the death of Yone Kawabata, Tsurumaru became the oldest living person in Miyazaki Prefecture.

On 3 September 2024, LongeviQuest representative and Director of LQ Japan, Yumi Yamamoto, attended a celebration of Tsurumaru’s longevity along with the lieutenant governor.

ATTRIBUTION

* “１０６歳鶴丸さん祝う／小林最高齢　市長が訪問” – Miyazaki Nichinichi Shimbun, 22 September 2019

* Miyazaki Prefecture Press Release, September 2022

* “県内で４番目の長寿 市内最高齢 鶴丸百合子さんをお祝い” – Kobayashi City Public Relations Magazine, October 2022 issue

* “県内最高齢110歳” – Miyazaki Nichinichi Shimbun, 21 August 2023

GALLERY