Tetsuyo Ishii

Tetsuyo Ishii was born Tetsuyo Ogawa on 29 April 1920 in Jōge, Kōnu District, Hiroshima Prefecture, an area that is now part of Fuchū City. She was the second of four children, with an older brother nine years her senior, a younger brother and a younger sister, Momoyo, seven years younger. Her father worked for the Ministry of Communications (the forerunner of the post office) and her mother farmed on a small scale. In a 2023 interview with Fujin Koron she recalled a poor but warm household: her father finished work at five o'clock sharp, bought fish on the way home and prepared it himself, which was unusual for a father of that era. She was a fast runner who represented her school in races, and she often carried little Momoyo on her back while she ran. Books were the one luxury: each month she received 50 sen to buy the children's magazine Yōnen Club, and Robinson Crusoe was her favourite story. Her father chose the name Tetsuyo, which she joked was often miswritten with the character for steel.

In her childhood most girls were expected to earn a living through sewing, but a teacher told her she was too clumsy for it. Her father then decided she should go to a normal school (teacher training college) and handed her a book of past entrance exam questions. She later laughed that he took her to a public bath for the first time the night before the exam. Of the 16 pupils from her classroom who sat the exam, she was the only one to pass. She studied at the normal school for five years. In an RCC interview she recalled a school trip to Manchuria during her student days.

Ishii became an elementary school teacher at about 20, and the Pacific War began the following year. With parents absorbed in simply getting by, she took on a parental role for her pupils, cutting their nails in turn, combing their hair, wiping their noses and washing soiled clothes in the river. She remembered how the teachers' union, which had opposed war, fell silent, and how from Jōge she watched the eastern sky turn red during the air raid on Fukuyama near the end of the war. After marriage she taught in the Onomichi area while also farming and running the household. When she found herself caring for her parents-in-law she considered quitting, but her headmaster told her firmly to keep working until retirement. She taught for 36 years and retired at 56. Afterwards she worked her fields, served as a volunteer welfare commissioner (minsei iin), taught the taishōgoto at local gatherings for older people and founded what she called a friendship club for elderly residents, which was still going some 50 years later. People in the neighbourhood called her "Sensei" all her life.

In 1946, at 26, she married Yoshihide Ishii, a teacher she met at the second school where she worked, and moved into his family's farmhouse in Onomichi (in the Minogō area, according to RCC), where they lived with his parents. She described him as a hard worker who was first to arrive at school and a domineering husband of the old style who often brought groups of colleagues home for drinks, and she said she respected him greatly as a teacher. The couple had no children, which she said was the hardest part of marrying into a farming family. Yoshihide died in 2003. She kept his photograph by her pillow and chose to go on living alone in the house, wanting to protect the family home they had shared, with help from her nieces, relatives and neighbours. Her sister Momoyo, her last surviving sibling, lived in a care facility in Kobe after a stroke, and a visit to her is one of the most moving scenes of the documentary about Tetsuyo.

Ishii's outlook was built on gratitude, humour and self-encouragement. She said that old age brings more things you cannot do and days when your heart feels heavy, but that there is no use lamenting, so she made herself an expert at cheering herself up. She focused on what she could still do rather than what she had lost, accepted help gracefully and thanked people constantly. She believed you cannot change others but can steer yourself, and that behind every unpleasant thing lies something good. She remained curious and kept studying; at 103 she showed a former pupil the fraction sums she had been doing in a Pokémon notebook, adding her trademark "nānchatte" (just kidding).

The Chugoku Shimbun began its series "Tetsuyo Obaachan: 100-sai, Kyō mo Kōjitsu" in 2020, when she was 100, along with short videos. It was collected in two books credited to Tetsuyo Ishii and the Chugoku Shimbun and published by Bungeishunju: "102-sai, Hitorigurashi. Tetsuyo Obaachan no Kokoro mo Karada mo Sabinai Ikikata" (10 January 2023) and "103-sai, Meigen Darake. Nānchatte: Tetsuyo Obaachan no Nagō Ikite Kita kara Wakaru Koto" (21 March 2024). By October 2024 they had sold more than 210,000 copies combined, and the first book was later published in English. She was interviewed by Fujin Koron (July 2023 issue) and appeared in Bungeishunju (June 2023 issue) in conversation with her former pupil Osamu Ogawa, a professor at Onomichi City University. RCC Broadcasting followed her for years on its programme "Imanama!", and director Kazuhiro Yamamoto edited that footage into the 94-minute documentary "104-sai, Tetsuyo-san no Hitorigurashi" (Tetsuyo Turned 104, Living on Her Own), narrated by Lily Franky. It opened in Hiroshima on 31 January 2025, went nationwide from April 2025 starting at Cine Switch Ginza in Tokyo, screened in 114 cinemas and was released in Taiwan in 2026. An encore run began in April 2026 to mark her 106th birthday.

In a country where, as one survey cited by Nippon.com found, only 27.5 percent of people said they wanted to live to 100, Ishii became a widely cited "model for the 100-year life". Her books, film and newspaper columns offered a practical, warm picture of growing very old with dignity, humour and community support, and director Kazuhiro Yamamoto said visually impaired viewers came to the cinema simply to draw strength from her voice. Cinemas, publishers and newspapers across Japan posted tributes when she died, and many readers said she had made them less afraid of ageing.

The documentary about her life, "Tetsuyo Turned 104, Living on Her Own", won the Nippon Docs Award 2026, the audience award for documentaries at the 26th Nippon Connection Japanese film festival in Frankfurt, presented on 7 June 2026 to director Kazuhiro Yamamoto and producer Sachi Okamoto. No personal state honours for Ishii have been reported.

After hospital stays in her later years, Ishii moved into a care facility near her home; she celebrated her 106th birthday in April 2026 at a party held at her house. She died of old age (rōsui) at 1:10 pm on 4 November 2026, aged 106, at the facility, watched over by relatives. Her niece Naoe Yokoyama told the Asahi Shimbun that she passed away as if falling asleep, and that the day before, when Yokoyama said she would come again, Tetsuyo smiled. The Chugoku Shimbun announced her death the same day. Her funeral was held at 1 pm on 6 November 2026 at JA Onomichi-shi Yasuragi Kaikan Mitsugi in Onomichi, with her niece Yayoi Sakanaga as chief mourner.