Welcome to the 9th in our series on centenarians: Nabi Tajima.
News note: I.M.Pei, famous architect, died at the age of 102 recently. I have seen his work and it is striking. I wish I knew what his secret to long life was.
Nabi lived from 8/4/1900 to 4/21/2018, 117 years and 260 days. She is #3 on the list of all-time longest-lived people and held the title of the oldest living person for 217 days. Nabi is also the oldest verified Asian.
She was born and died on the island of Kikaijima, between Okinawa and the main group of Japanese islands, one of 3 Japanese super-centenarians. I found out that the word super-centenarian is reserved for people who live to be at least 110.
Tajima was the last person to survive that lived in the 19th century. I learned something while researching this. According to the Gregorian calendar, strictly interpreted, the first century started in the year 1 and ended in the year 100. So the last year of the nineteenth century was 1900. See the link below for more information.
Nabi Tajima was married and had 9 children, 28 grandchildren, 56 great-grandchildren and 35 great-great-grandchildren as of 2001, and reportedly had 160 descendants at the time of her death, including great-great-great grandchildren. Her husband died aged 95 in the 1990’s.
She and her husband were farmers, and I believe farmers did a lot of manual labor, especially in the early 20th century, and this may have played into why she was able to live such a long life.
Quality of life:
She died in a nursing home, and was hospitalized for the last month of her life. Her grandson said “She passed away as if falling asleep. As she had been a hard worker, I want to tell her ‘rest well,’ ” She liked hand-dancing to music when the shamisen is played. This was reported when she was named the oldest living person at age 117.
Her secret for longevity:
Sleeping soundly and eating delicious food.
What do we learn?
Getting good sleep is important. As a farmer, she probably got up pretty early in the morning. And those 9 children probably did not make it easy to sleep early on. We all have challenges though, and to live a long life you must overcome them.
That’s what Nabi Tajima did, and thus ends our podcast salute to her.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/the-last-known-person-born-in-the-19th-century-died-in-japan.html
http://www.grg.org/
http://www.nankainn.com/local/「ナビばあちゃんちばりよー」／喜界町の田島さ
Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 218 (-59)
Workout time: 140 Minutes
Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 5.86 Miles (504.32)
Steps: 14,627
Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 152.95 (+10)
Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29%
Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 5 hours
2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat