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Shigechiyo Izumi
Born	Claimed June 29, 1865 Isen, Tokunoshima, Ryūkyū Kingdom
Died	February 21, 1986(1986-02-21) (aged &10000000000000120000000120 years, &10000000000000237000000237 days) (disputed) Isen, Ōshima, Kagoshima, Japan
Cause of death	Pneumonia

Shigechiyo Izumi (泉 重千代, Izumi Shigechiyo^?, claimed birth June 29, 1865 – February 21, 1986) was a Japanese centenarian who was titled the oldest living person after the death of Niwa Kawamoto, also from Japan. His case was first verified by Guinness World Records, who titled him the oldest person ever, but Guinness have in recent years backed away from their previous statement; in the Guinness World Records book 2012, Christian Mortensen is titled "the oldest verified man ever" and Izumi is not even mentioned.^[1] His name was recorded in Japan's first census of 1871.

  Biography

Izumi's wife died at the age of 90.^{[citation needed]} He drank brown sugar shōchū (a Japanese alcoholic beverage often distilled from barley or rice), and took up smoking at age 70.^[2] He claimed to have begun his career in 1872, goading draft animals at a sugar mill, and retired as a sugarcane farmer in 1970 at the claimed age of 105.^{[citation needed]} He attributed his long life to "the Gods, Buddha and the Sun".

  Death and controversy over age

After a brief hospitalization, Izumi died of pneumonia^[3] at 21:15 Japan Standard Time (JST) on February 21, 1986. Izumi was the longest holder of the "oldest living person" title. He is also one of only two people (the other being Jeanne Calment) verified to have lived past their 120th birthday, although subsequent research has cast doubt on the verification. In April 1987, 14 months after Izumi's death, the Department of Epidemiology at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology reported that research into Izumi's family registration records indicated Izumi might have died at the age of 105.^[4][5] Also in the Guinness World Records Book 2011, it states that "The birth certificate submitted as evidence might actually belong to his older brother, who died at a young age; if the family used Izumi as a 'necronym'—that is, gave him his dead brother's name, as the new research suggests—this means his final age was 105 years old, not 120."^{[citation needed]}

The oldest undisputed case of male longevity is that of Christian Mortensen (1882–1998), who died at the age of 115 years and 252 days. The oldest Japanese man ever whose age is undisputed, is Jiroemon Kimura (1897-) who is &10000000000000115000000115 years, &1000000000000007100000071 days.

  See also

• List of the oldest people
• Longevity
• Longevity claims
• Longevity myths
• Oldest people
• Senescence
• Centenarian
• Supercentenarian

  References