The Akutagawa reports that Shibata Toyo, who suddenly became a phenomenally popular and bestselling poet in her 90s, has passed away at 101.

Her publishing career started just three years ago at 98, when she took up writing poetry privately as a hobby by her son when old age kept from her love of traditional Japanese folk dancing. Her son then visited her every week to revise her poetry. One of her poems was then published in the Sankei Newspaper, to great acclaim and she became a regular on the Letters to the Editor column. They self-published her collection of poems in the fall of 2009, but in March it was republished by Asuka Shinsha.  That collection, the 150 page「くじけないで」, turned into a runaway bestseller and one of the top selling books of the year.

A strange yet sweet success story. A video of Shibata and her poems is embedded below: