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 eldest of seven children. After graduating from elementary school, she 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 and had two children, a son and a daughter.

Matsumoto lived with her eldest son’s family in Osaka until she was 89, where she enjoyed taking care of her grandchildren. After her son passed away, she moved to Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture to live with her daughter, doing so until she was 108. Between the ages of 92 to 108, she attended a local care center for the elderly thrice weekly, where she began to paint with watercolors.

At the age of 108, Matsumoto was hospitalized with a compression fracture in her lower back. Since her home was on the third floor, she worked hard at the rehabilitation facility to recover, practicing going up and down from the first to the third floor every day. She was told by her doctor that it would take three months for her to fully recuperate, but within a month she had recovered. Other than this fracture, she has no history of illness or injuries. She drank sake every day until she moved into a nursing home. Her family claims that the secret of her longevity is her calm personality.

Matsumoto currently lives in Yokohama, Kanagawa, and is, as of March 2024, the prefecture’s fourth-oldest resident in history.