Hide Hamabe

	Hide Hamabe
	; Hamabe on her 113th birthday in 2021
Birth:	3 December 1908; Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan
Death:	10 January 2023; Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan
Age:	114 years, 38 days
Country:	JPN
	Validated

Hide Hamabe [Japanese: 濵邊ヒデ] (3 December 1908 – 10 January 2023) was a Japanese supercentenarian whose age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). At the time of her death, she was the fourth-oldest validated living person in Japan, after Fusa Tatsumi, Tomiko Itooka, and Yasue Okai.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Hide Hamabe was born in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan on 3 December 1908.

During her high school days, Hamabe was doing well academically, and she was especially good at English. She was supposed to go to a national university in Nara Prefecture as a special student, but she declined due to various reasons, and she married Seizo Hamabe, a teacher at a Fisheries University. Due to her husband's work, she lived in Tottori and Yamaguchi prefectures after her marriage.

After her husband died in 1944, Hamabe worked in a station shop, raised four children, and sent them all to university. She moved to her hometown of Ebino, Miyazaki in 1957 after all her children had gone to university. After she returned home, she ran a small shop and lived alone.

Later Life and Death[]

When Hamabe was about 70, she hiked the Ebino high plateau with her granddaughter. Hide climbed the mountain with less effort than her granddaughter, who was in college at the time, and amazed her granddaughter with the strength of her legs and her stamina. Her hobby was a Japanese karuta game called "Hyakunin Isshu". Around the age of 90, she was strong enough to compete in its national tournament. She was full of intellectual curiosity, and at the age of 110, she could intuitively scroll through a smartphone screen and perform simple operations. At the age of 103, she moved into a nursing home.

In September 2019, Hamabe was reported as the second-oldest known living person in Miyazaki Prefecture, after Tame Yamaguchi of Hyuga. Following the death of 113-year-old Tame Yamaguchi on 6 September 2020, Hamabe was reported to be the oldest known living person in Miyazaki Prefecture.

In September 2022, Hamabe received a congratulatory letter from the prefecture through the staff of the nursing home. At that time, she was hard of hearing, but she was able to have a conversation if she spoke loudly. According to the nursing home Hamabe was in, she had a positive and cheerful personality and liked to talk, but since around November 2022, her appetite had decreased and she had been unable to eat much.

Hamabe's age was verified by Japan's MHLW, Yumi Yamamoto, Sachiko Hamabe, and Yu Li, and validated by the GRG on 5 November 2022.

Hide Hamabe died in Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan on 10 January 2023 at the age 114 years, 38 days. Following her death, then-109-year-old Yone Kawabata [Japanese: 川畠ヨ子] of Miyakonojo City became the oldest known living person in Miyazaki Prefecture.