Toyo Shibata

Toyo Shibata (Japanese柴田 トヨ; born June 26, 1911 in Tochigi, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, † January 20, 2013 in Utsunomiya, Japan) was a Japanese poet.

Life

Toyo Shibata was born in 1911 as the only daughter of the wealthy rice trader Tomizo Morishima (森 岛 富 造) and his wife Yasu (ヤス) in Tochigi. Since her youth she worked him Restaurants and learned Shibata Eikichi (柴 田 曳 吉), whom she married at the age of 33. The following year her son Ken'ichi (健 一) was born. In 1992 her husband died and she now lived alone, and she had her hobby, the classical Japanese dance give up after a hip injury, you advised her son to write poetry. From 2004, this appeared in the national newspaper Sankei Shimbun.

42 of these, they published in October 2009 with the self-published book of poetry Kujikenaide ( " Do not be discouraged "). 2010 was a new edition by the publisher Asuka Shinsha. The book, with a new exterior and illustrations immediately became a best seller with a circulation of more than 1.6 million copies.

2011 was followed by Shibata's second collection of poems Hyakusai ( "100 years old"). This sold more than 450,000 times.

At the age of 101 years, she died in a nursing home in Utsunomiya.

Publications

• Kujikenaide (くじけ ない で, " Do not be discouraged "). Asuka Shinsha, Tokyo 2010, ISBN 978-4-87031-992-9. German: You're never too old to be happy: wisdom of a Hundred Years. Pendo Verlag, Munich / Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86612-337-3.