JAPAN: 100-Kan Oldster

In the hill village of Shirakawa, Hikosaku Matsumoto, 62, is called “Hyakkan Jii San”—100-kan oldster—because of his boast that he can lift 100 kan (825 Ibs.). His undisciplined white beard and scholarly bald dome make him look more like an elderly monk than an athlete. His nickname delights him so much that, after the manner of Tony Galento’s boxing trunks, he has “Hyakkan” written in Chinese characters down the front of his athletic blouse.

Last summer Matsumoto again proved he was worthy of his nickname by climbing 12,395-ft. Mt. Fuji carrying a heavy stone on his back. Next he ran 56 miles from Shirakawa to Fukushima. Last week he topped all previous feats by trotting nonstop from his hometown to Tokyo’s Ueno Station. The distance”: 117 miles, five times the historic run from Marathon to Athens. The time: 29 hours.

En route, Matsumoto wore out four pairs of special straw sandals, nourished himself by munching rice balls which he had arranged to have tied to convenient roadside trees the day before. A younger, less durable friend followed on a bicycle, but Matsumoto breezed into Tokyo with enough wind left to tell startled bystanders about his run. He also wheezed a challenge: at a Shirakawa shrine festival he would lift a 70-kan (579-lb.) stone, would give a prize of ten yen (65¢) to anyone who could lift more. Sneered Matsumoto: “Youngsters these days are too soft.”