| Chiyo Miyako | |
 Chiyo Miyako at the age of 114 | |
| Birth: | 2 May 1901 Wakayama Prefecture, Japan |
| Death: | 22 July 2018 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Age: | 117 years, 81 days |
| Country: |  JPN
|
| Validated | |
Chiyo Miyako [Japanese: 都 千代] (2 May 1901 – 22 July 2018) was a validated Japanese supercentenarian who was the oldest living person in the world since 21 April 2018, until her death three months later.
She is currently the ninth-oldest validated person ever, and the third-oldest Japanese person ever, behind Kane Tanaka and Nabi Tajima.
Biography
Early Life
Miyako was born on 2 May 1901 in the town of Yuasa, in the Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, as the fourth of five children. While her town was known for growing mandarin oranges, her parents owned a paper store. Due to her older siblings all dying at a young age, she was raised as the oldest child of the family, where she had a younger brother. As an elementary school student, she enjoyed most of her studies, but disliked physical education. Upon graduating from primary school, she attended higher education at a telegraph school in Osaka, where she studied to become a telegraph operator. It was during her attendance in Osaka when she met her future husband, Shoji, who later worked for Japanese National Railways, which meant that they often moved, including relocating to Beijing, China for a few years.
She enjoyed calligraphy, which she learned during her childhood and practiced well into her old age. Her favourite foods were sushi and eel. She was described as a "chatty goddess" by her family.
Later Life
After her husband's death in 1951, Miyako and her two children moved back in with her parents. Her son later received a PhD from the University of Michigan, and taught as a professor at the University of Tokyo, but died in 1974 at the age of 52. 10 years later, Miyako's daughter also died, aged 57.
Upon the tragic early deaths of her husband and two children, she moved in with one of her grandchildren, where she would remain for several decades before moving into a retirement home at the age of 97.
Centenarian Years
At the age of 100, she participated in a Japanese centenarian study, where she was observed to be in good physical shape, and displayed no signs of dementia on cognitive tests. By the time she was 110, her cognitive faculties remained strong, and was continuing her hobbies of calligraphy and writing haiku poetry by the age of 114.
At the age of 114, she became stricken with multiple episodes of serious illness, which required hospitalization. Even though she had both of her legs amputated and was using a gastrostomy-feeding tube, she said that she wanted to return to her former career at the telegraph station once she recovered.
Guinness World Records verified her as the oldest surgery patient ever. She had her right leg amputated on 17 May 2015 at the age of 114 years, 15 days and her left leg amputated two years later on 8 May 2017 at the age of 116 years, 6 days. The operations were both performed at Jikei University School of Medicine Hospital. The need for amputation was caused by arteriosclerosis obliterans, a vascular disease that resulted from a lack of movement.
Miyako was officially validated by the Gerontology Research Group on 3 August 2015. She became the oldest living person in Kanagawa following the death of 114 year-old Kiyoko Ishiguro on 5 December 2015, and the oldest person in Japan and the world following the death of Nabi Tajima on 21 April 2018. She was the last surviving validated person born in 1901.
Miyako died in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture on 22 July 2018 at the age of 117 years, 81 days. Her death came just as evidence of her applications for the title of oldest person living were approved by Guinness World Records. Following her death, Japanese woman Kane Tanaka became the world's oldest validated living person.
Gallery
Sitting: Kiku (Chiyo's mother), Toshiko (Chiyo's daughter), Chiyo
References
- GRG World Supercentenarian Rankings List Gerontology Research Group
- Oldest surgery patient Guinness World Records, 8 May 2017
- Oldest person title officially achieved by 117-year-old Chiyo Miyako before her death Guinness World Records, 26 July 2018
- Chiyo Miyako, the World's Oldest Person, Has Died at 117 TIME, 27 July 2018
- World’s oldest person dies at 117, now 115-year-old is oldest Las Vegas Review-Journal, 27 July 2018
- Exceptional Lifespans SpringerLink, 12 December 2020
| Japan's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (V • T • E) |
|
Waka Shirahama • Tane Ikai • Sue Utagawa • Suekiku Miyanaga • Asa Takii • Tase Matsunaga • Yasu Akino • Denzo Ishizaki • Kayo Fujii • Mie Ishiguro • Matsuno Oikawa • Yukichi Chuganji • Mitoyo Kawate • Ura Koyama • Yone Minagawa • Shitsu Nakano • Tsuneyo Toyonaga • Kaku Yamanaka • Kama Chinen • Chiyono Hasegawa • Jiroemon Kimura • Misao Okawa • Anonymous (Tokyo) • Nabi Tajima • Chiyo Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Fusa Tatsumi • Tomiko Itooka |
| Japan's Oldest Living Woman Titleholders (V • E) |
|
Sue Watanabe • Unknown • Tome Yoshida • Haru Komai • Ishi Hayashi • Yoshigiku Ito • Tome Horigome • Haruno Shimada • Mito Umeta • Niwa Kawamoto • Isa Nakayama • Man Ichikawa • Koume Kabira • Matsu Yoshikuni • Koharu Kodaira • Oto Michii • Toka Miyata • Momu Okuma • Ine Tsugawa • Seki Takehara • Waka Shirahama • Tane Ikai • Sue Utagawa • Suekiku Miyanaga • Asa Takii • Tase Matsunaga • Yasu Akino • Kayo Fujii • Mie Ishiguro • Matsuno Oikawa • Mitoyo Kawate • Ura Koyama • Yone Minagawa • Shitsu Nakano • Tsuneyo Toyonaga • Kaku Yamanaka • Kama Chinen • Chiyono Hasegawa • Koto Okubo • Misao Okawa • Anonymous (Tokyo) • Nabi Tajima • Chiyo Miyako • Kane Tanaka • Fusa Tatsumi • Tomiko Itooka |