Jiroemon Kimura
Jiroemon Kimura was a Japanese supercentenarian who was the verified oldest living person between Dina Manfredini's death on 17 December 2012 and his own death at age 116 years and 54 days on 12 June 2013. Kimura became the oldest verified living man in the world on 25 September 2011 at the age of 114, upon the death of Peru's Horacio Celi Mendoza, and later also the oldest man in history whose lifespan is verified on 28 December 2012, when he surpassed the age of Christian Mortensen. He is the only verified man who has lived to age 116, and one of only six men known to be the oldest living person.
After 113-year-old James Sisnett's death on 23 May 2013, Kimura was the last surviving man born in the 19th century.
Family
According to records, Kimura, then named Kinjiro Miyake, was born on 19 April 1897 in the fishing village of Kamiukawa, in the Kyoto Prefecture of the Empire of Japan, as the fifth of eight children to farmers Morizo Miyake and Fusa Miyake ; Kinjiro had two elder sisters and two elder brothers, of whom, however, only the second sister and second brother were alive at the time of Kinjiro's birth.Early life
Verifying birthdate
Kimura's age was further verified by researchers in an article that they published in 2017.After thorough research, including conducting family interviews and searching official records, the authors verified Kimura's age and date of birth.
Kimura's nephew Tamotsu Miyake said his uncle's birthday was 19 March, but that this had been mistakenly recorded as 19 April in 1955 when records from neighbouring towns were consolidated and redone.
The researchers concluded, however, that Kimura was listed as being born on 19 March 1897, on his school records due to his parents' desire to have him begin school a year earlier than his later birthday would have allowed, so that he could graduate from school earlier and begin working on the family farm. During this time in Japan, schoolchildren born before April were one school year ahead of schoolchildren who were born in April or afterwards.
Education and career
On 1 April 1903, Kimura began his primary-school education. An intelligent student, he graduated with the equivalent of an eighth-grade education under the old imperial educational system on 31 March 1911, having had two additional years of schooling beyond what was then compulsory.After leaving school at the age of 14 he worked for the post office, retiring more than fifty years later at the age of 65. He then went on to work as a farmer until he was 90.
Career
On 10 April 1911, Miyake began work at the Nakahama post office as a telegraph boy while also working on his family's farm. He left the Nakahama post office on 2 February 1913. From May to December 1914, he studied at a posts and telegraph training school in Kyoto, graduating at the head of his class of 70 students and resuming work at the Nakahama post office on 4 December 1914.Military service
On 1 April 1918, Miyake was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army and was posted to Nakano, Tokyo, where he served with a communications unit. He was discharged from service on 30 June, was again conscripted on 1 September 1919 and was posted to Tokyo, but only served for three weeks until 21 September. On 23 May 1920, he left the Nakahama post office for the final time. To help support his second-youngest brother who had emigrated to Korea under Japanese rule for work and had fallen ill there, Miyake moved to Keijō, taking a job on 31 May with the Government-General of Chōsen in the Mail and Telecommunications Department, with a salary of 30 yen plus a 30% overseas service allowance. He only stayed in Korea until November, however, before returning to Japan and his work on the farm.From 1 to 21 September 1921, Kimura underwent a final three-week period of army service, again in a communications unit, during which he was posted to Hiroshima. Around this time, he attended a ceremony in Kyoto to welcome the return to Japan of Crown Prince Hirohito from a tour of Europe. After his national service, Kimura resumed farming until 21 April 1924, when he was appointed a deputy postmaster at the Hira post office. He worked there for the next 38 years until his retirement on 30 June 1962, two months after his 65th birthday and having worked in post offices for 45 years.
Marriage and family
On 27 December 1920, Kimura married his neighbour Yae Kimura, the adopted daughter of Jiroemon Kimura VIII and his wife K. Kimura. The marriage was officially registered two days later. Since his wife's family lacked a male heir, following her father's death in 1927, he changed his name to Jiroemon Kimura, becoming the ninth member of the family to bear that name. Jiroemon and Yae Kimura, who were married until Yae's death in 1979, had eight children born between 1922 and 1943, the second of whom, however, died in August 1927, shortly before age 2, and the youngest died on 31 August 1998 at age 54.In 1978, Kimura and his wife moved in with their eldest son's family. After Yae's death in 1979, Kimura continued to live with his eldest son and subsequently, after the eldest son's death in 1998, with one grandson until his death in 2005, and then for the remainder of his life with the grandson's widow and, until January 2013, also the eldest son's widow. Kimura had in total 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and 13 great-great-grandchildren. At age 110, Kimura also had one living brother, Tetsuo, who died on 2 June 2007 at age 98.