Biography
Masa Matsumoto was born in Kōnan-cho, Kōka District (now part of the city of Kōka), Shiga Prefecture, Japan, on 29 November 1909. She was the first of seven children. After graduating from elementary school, Mrs. Matsumoto left her family home and spent several years working as a babysitter (Japanese: “Komori-Houkou”) at the Mitsubishi Group‘s mansion in Osaka. Around the age of 22, she married her childhood friend. The couple had two children, a son, and a daughter.
Mrs. Matsumoto lived with her eldest son’s family in Osaka until she was 89, where she enjoyed taking care of her grandchildren. After her eldest son passed away, she moved to Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture to live with her eldest daughter. She lived with her until she was 108. Between the ages of 92 to 108, she attended a local care center for the elderly three times a week, where she began to paint with watercolors. At the age of 108, she was hospitalized with a compression fracture in her lower back. Since her home was on the 3rd floor, she worked hard at the rehab facility to recover, practicing going up and down from the 1st to the 3rd floor every day. She was told by her doctor that it would take three months for her to fully recover, but she made a full recovery in a month. Other than her fracture at that time, she has no history of illness or injuries. She drank sake every day until she entered the nursing home. Her family claims that the secret of her longevity is her calm personality.
Masa Matsumoto currently lives in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
