Izumi, Shigetiyo

Shigetiyo Izumi ( 泉 重 千代 Izumi Shigetiyo , June 29, 1865 , Isen village on Tokunoshima Island, Ryukyu State , now Kagoshima Prefecture - February 21, 1986 , ibid.) - was considered the oldest man in the world who lived 120 years and 237 days.

Shigetiyo Izumi
jap. 泉 重 千代
Date of Birth	June 29, 1865 ( 1865-06-29 )
Place of Birth
Date of death	February 21, 1986 ( 1986-02-21 ) (120 years old)
Place of death
Citizenship	Japan
Occupation	teacher

According to Izumi, he remembered the 1871 census in Japan where he was entered as a 6-year-old boy. Izumi worked until 105 as a teacher at the school. At the age of about 100, he buried his 90-year-old wife.

Throughout his life he drank shochu (“fire water” - a drink produced by distillation of sugar), and at the age of 70 he began to smoke.

Izumi's birth certificate has been preserved and is documentary evidence that he was indeed the oldest man ever to live, whose age was reliably known. Meanwhile, a number of Japanese researchers believe that the birth certificate could belong to the older brother Izumi, who died at an early age, and his parents named the future long-liver. According to researchers, the age of Shigetiyo at the time of death was 105 years.

Izumi explained his longevity by the beneficial influence of God, Buddha, the Sun and Water. Shigetiyo Izumi died on February 21, 1986 at 12:15 GMT.

It so happened that Izumi died on the 111th birthday of another long-living woman, Jeanne Kalman , who in February 1995 went down in history as the first (and so far the only) among women whose age reliably exceeded 120 years. The long-lived woman died in August 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.