The Iwashitas, Kesumi-san and Kaoru-san (袈裟實さん、カヲルさん) were both born in Aso Town in Taisho 6 (大正6年), which corresponds to 1917. They met, fell in love, married, and had two sons. He did office work for JA, she taught elementary school. 60 years ago, Kaoru-san began to have heart trouble, so Kesumi-san added housework and child raising to his schedule.
They now live in Jonan, two centenarians still together, alive and in love, and they were celebrated for it yesterday, Respect for the Aged Day. “They still have good appetites and are healthy. Taisho, Showa - they’ve lived through turbulent times, and all I have for my parents are words of gratitude. I’d like them to live even longer”, their son said.
BTW, “ko” (子) was reserved for royalty until the Meji census reform in 1882, and most females (and even some males except for the first-born) were given names written in katakana. The ability to read was not prevalent among the poor of that time - not just the offspring but the parents as well - and official documents were usually dictated orally, with katakana considered more official than the more feminine hiragana. Parents would often pay big money to a scholar for a very fancy name for their first-born son: Consider Kesumi-san’s kanji, 袈裟實. I wonder how old he was before he learned how to write that.
A bit of good news for a Tuesday back at work. - William
