Shigechiyo Izumi

Infobox Person
name=Shigechiyo Izumi


caption=
birth_date=June 29, 1865?
birth_place= Tokunoshima, Amami Islands, Ryukyu
death_date = death date|1986|2|21 aged 120? years, 237 days
death_cause = Pneumonia
death_place= Tokunoshima, Amami Islands, Japan

nihongo|Shigechiyo Izumi|泉 重千代 "Izumi Shigechiyo"|extra=June 29, 1865? – February 21, 1986 was a Japanese supercentenarian and, according to Guinness World Records, became the person with the greatest authenticated age in the world after the death of Niwa Kawamoto, also from Japan. Assuming his claimed birth-date is correct, he would have attained an age of 120 years and 237 days, older than any other recognized male, and be the second-longest lived human ever, only to Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment.The Guinness Book of Records, 1999 edition, p. 102. ISBN 0851120709.] He also holds the record for the longest working career for a person, spanning 98 years. He was recorded as a six-year-old in Japan's first Census of 1871.

Izumi's wife died at the age of 90.Fact|date=December 2007 He drank brown sugar shōchū (a Japanese alcoholic beverage often distilled from barley or rice), and took up smoking at age 70. [cite book|title=Guinness Book of Records|edition=1993 (32nd edition)|year=1992|month=October|publisher=Guinness World Records Limited|pages=320 pages|isbn=0851129781] He began his career in 1872 goading draft animals at a sugar mill, and retired as a sugarcane farmer in 1970 at the age of 105.Fact|date=December 2007 He attributed his long life to "the Gods, Buddha and the Sun." He stood at 1.42 meters (four feet, eight inches) tall, weighed 42.6 kilograms (94 pounds) and lived through 71 Japanese Prime Ministers.

He died of pneumonia after a brief hospitalization at 12:15 GMT, the same day as Jeanne Calment's 111th birthday. Izumi was the last recognized surviving person of the 1860s, the only male to live at least 116 years and the longest holder of the "oldest living person" title. He is also one of only two people (the other being Jeanne Calment) verified to live past their 120th birthday, although subsequent research has cast doubt on the verification. [Asahi News Service, APRIL 6, 1987, MONDAY, JAPANESE EXPERT DEBUNKS IDEA OF 'VILLAGE OF 100-YEAR-OLDS']

Following his death, Mamie Eva Keith became the world's oldest person. For more than 20 years after his death every person with the title of the world's oldest living person was female until Emiliano Mercado del Toro became the world's oldest living person on December 11, 2006.

Disputed claim

Subsequent research has cast doubt on his claim, as what was previously believed to be his birth certificate may actually have been that of his older brother, who died young and whose name might have been reused as a necronym. If so, this would mean he was 105 when he died. [ [http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Shigechiyo:Izumi.htm http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Shigechiyo:Izumi.htm] ]

ee also

* Aging
* Lifespan
* List of the oldest people
* Longevity
* Longevity claims (for information on competing, but unsuccessfully verified claims of longevity)
* Longevity myths (for information on far-fetched claims of longevity)
* Oldest people
* Senescence
* Supercentenarian
* Jean Teillet (the oldest man in the world at the time if Izumi's claimed birthdate would not be not correct)

References