It took 100 years, but twins Kin Narita and Gin Kanie have found fame.
Since they were ”discovered” and designated national treasures y the government in 1991, they have become national celebrities, appearing in TV commercials for a catalog sales company, newspaper and magazine articles and they`ve even made recorded songs for children.
So when the twins twins donated $30,000 of the money their fame has generated to help the aged last December, it made the national news. Just about everything these two centenarians do has become news-from filing their tax returns to a choking incident with a fish bone.
Letters addressed only to Kin-san or Gin-san, Nagoya city, are delivered to their homes. (San is an honorific form of address.)
Such fame leaves the twins bemused. ”We are ordinary old women having lived unremarkable lives,” said Kin and Gin at their homes, 195 miles southwest of Tokyo. They live in the same neighborhood, just 20 minutes apart by car.
”The twins remind us of traditional values, which have been lost as Japan became rich,” said Yuichi Amano, a columnist for Asahi Shimbun newspaper who writes on Japanese social phenomena. ”They symbolize the Japanese ideal old age, being loved and respected by family members and society. They make us forget the misery of the aged.”
While the twins` present well-being is seen as encouraging to others, their lives have been full of hardships. ”What we did was only to work hard from childhood,” Gin said.
They were born Aug. 1, 1892, in a small farm village near their current homes, the first daughters of Kumakichi Yano, a tenant farmer, and his wife, Yuka.
There was no electricity, no gas, no tap water in those days. They were named Kin (meaning gold) and Gin (silver), common names in Nagoya then, by their parents` priest.
Two sisters and three brothers followed the twins. Kin and Gin helped their parents from the age of 5 by cooking, washing, farming, babysitting and sewing. This delayed their entry into school until they were 9.
The twins dressed identically, following the custom in those days. They say they were bullied often by other children, as identical twins were rare.
However, sometimes being twins was advantageous. During the busy farm season, Kin and Gin alternated going to school and taught the other the day`s school lessons while they were spinning at home at night.
Four years later, the twins quit school to help their mother, who suffered from rheumatism.
At 19, Kin married Ryokichi Narita, 27, a farmer. As was the custom, it was an arranged marriage. The couple continued to farm, producing rice, barley and beans. Of their 11 children, five died as infants from malnutrition.
At 22, Gin married Sonojiro Kanie, 27, a local farmer. Like her sister, Gin worked long hours. ”Our major concern was to have enough to eat,” said Gin.
To the twins, it appears that today`s young women have everything, but they worry about the apparent self-centeredness of the younger generation.
”They must be happy, but their husbands and children might not,” Gin said.
They are shocked by women who choose not to have children. ”As long as they are young, it is fine, but they will be lonely at the end,” Gin said.
Kin, whose husband died 43 years ago, lives with her son Yukio, 61, a retired salaried man, and his wife and two sons. Gin, whose husband died 23 years ago, lives with her youngest daughter, Mineyo, 68, and Mineyo`s son Yoshinao, 43, a construction company owner, and his family of four.
”We never thought we would live this long,” Kin said. ”We could survive because we were twins. We need each other more than anyone else in the world.
”At 100, finally, I have reached my best time of my life. I have done everything I was supposed to do, so I have no regrets.”
