Miyoko Hiroyasu

BIOGRAPHY

Miyoko Hiroyasu was born in Nakatsu, Ōita Prefecture, Japan, on 23 January 1911. She studied art at a Tokyo school and later worked as an art teacher in Hiroshima Prefecture. She married a man she had met while working in Hiroshima.

At the age of 113, she was still reading newspapers as part of her daily routine, and occasionally played Othello and wrote letters to her three children. When asked about the secret of her longevity, she replied: “My older sister and younger sister died early, but I have never been sick. I am grateful to my parents for giving me a healthy body. The key to my longevity is doing what I want to do and not being lazy about anything.”

In her later years, before she moved into a nursing home, she held a class four times a week at her home in Nakatsu City to teach elementary school students how to write and draw.

At the age of 113, she was able to recite in English Aesop’s fable, “The Fox and the Grapes,” which she had memorized in high school.

On January 23, 2024, Miyoko Hiroyasu celebrated her 113th birthday at a group home in Nakatsu City. she is the last surviving person in Ōita Prefecture who was born in the Meiji era.

RECOGNITION

On 17 September 2018, she was congratulated by the Mayor of Nakatsu City as the oldest living person in the city at the age of 107.

Following the death of 110-year-old Kiyo Sato on 30 April 2021, Hiroyasu was reported to be the oldest living person in Ōita Prefecture.

On 17 September 2021, she had a remote meeting with the prefectural governor of Ōita Prefecture in celebration of her being 110 years old, the oldest living person in the prefecture. On 21 September 2021, the mayor of Nakatsu visited her nursing home presenting her with a bouquet of flowers in celebration of her being the oldest living person in the prefecture.

On February 13, 2024, LongeviQuest made a celebratory visit and sent a bouquet of flowers and a plaque (more information here).