BIOGRAPHY

Tomoichi Kubota was born in Shimochi Village, Tosa County (now part of Kōchi City), Kōchi Prefecture, on 13 December 1903. After graduating from Kobe Higher Commercial School, he became a teacher in Hiroshima Prefecture and was assigned to Kōchi Commercial High School in 1941. He was well respected as a warm-hearted teacher and served as principal from 1959 to 1965. He also attended the Kōchi Commercial School reunion until he was in his late 90s.

When asked about the secret of his health, he attributed it to regular walking since he was young and his wife’s cooking. He continued to live at his home in Kōchi City until he was over 100 years old. In 2008, he contracted pneumonia and spent the rest of his life in the hospital. When some of his students from his teaching days (in their 80s at the time) visited him at the hospital in 2010, he was in a wheelchair but in good spirits as they reminisced about those days.

He passed away on March 29, 2015 at the age of 111 years and 106 days. At the time of his death, he was the third longest-lived Japanese male.

RECOGNITION

In September 2010, at the age of 106, he became the oldest living man in Kōchi Prefecture.

On 15 January 2013, he became the oldest living person in Kōchi Prefecture, at the age of 109.

In December 2013, he celebrated his 110th birthday. In January or February 2014, he surpassed the final age of Yuki Numa (沼勇喜; 1899–2009), becoming the oldest man ever in Kōchi Prefecture.

At the time of death, he was the third-oldest living man in Japan, after Yasutaro Koide and Sakari Momoi.

ATTRIBUTION

* “■シニアらいふ　『熟年ポスト』　酔会” – Kochi Shimbun, 9 April 1997

* “８４歳　１０６歳恩師と再会　１９４３年度　高知商業学校卒業　「よう来てくれた。ありがとう」” – Kochi Shimbun, 20 September 2010

* “＊訃報　　県内最高齢の１１１歳　久保田朋一さん死去　高知市” – Kochi Shimbun, 3 April 2015

GALLERY

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