Kito Aya was born on July 19, 1962, in Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture. When she was in the third year of junior high school, she frequently complained of poor physical condition including falling and her family consulted the Koseikai Hospital. She was diagnosed with spinocerebellar degeneration, an incurable disease that gradually lost her limbs and speech, atrophied the cerebellum, brain stem, and spinal cord, and eventually made her lose all motor functions of the body, leading to death.
Even if the cerebellum or brain stem atrophies, the cerebrum does not atrophy and intelligence functions normally, so she wrote a diary during her fight against the illness. In May 1988, she developed weakness and complications as her illness progressed and died after living a short life of 25 years.
In 1986, a poetry collection “1 Litre no Namida ーNanbyo to Tatakai Tsuzukeru Shojo Aya no Nikkiー” was published by a publisher in Nagoya City. After that, it received a great deal of attention in the Tokai region and was published as a paperback book by Gentosha in 2005. In February 2005, the movie “1 Liter no Namida” (Toei), which was shot locally at Toyohashi Higashi High School in Aichi Prefecture, where Aya actually attended, was screened. A TV drama was also produced and broadcast on the Fuji TV series from October 11th to December 20th, 2005. In addition to making the film into a movie and drama, a photo exhibition showing her relics and diary was also held.
