From a Gift to a starry night, Hanyu Yuzuru continues professional show whirlwind
The double Olympic champion returns to the professional ice this weekend with three shows in his home region of Miyagi, paying respect on the 12th anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake – just two weeks after completing his one-off solo show in Tokyo. Gymnastics legend Uchimura Kohei is set to make an appearance.
Figure Skating
Hanyu Yuzuru has been a busy man since retiring from competitive figure skating.
The Japanese legend has produced and performed multiple professional ice shows as a one-man band.
The 28-year-old is not stopping there. Fresh off giving his worldwide fans the "Gift" of a live-streamed show, Hanyu is heading home, to Miyagi Prefecture, for what will be an emotional homecoming.
Miyagi Prefecture was one of the hardest-hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster on 11 March 2011. Hanyu himself had to be evacuated from hometown Sendai, later recalling the stillness of the star-filled night sky, from which the name of his forthcoming shows "notte stellata" (starry night in Italian) comes.
Due to his career, Hanyu has never performed on the anniversary of the tragedy.
That will change this week, when he will perform on three consecutive days from 10–12 March.
Hanyu's busy agenda
Since retiring, Hanyu has self-produced two shows – "Prologue" and "Gift" – both of which were performed solo.
"Gift" was history-making. Performed two weeks ago at the Tokyo Dome, it was the first time a figure skating show had taken place at one of Japan's most historic sporting venues.
And yet, the one-night-only show sold out the 35,000 tickets available, and also many worldwide live streaming tickets.
With the first two chapters of his professional skating career under his belt, Hanyu will now turn his attention to "notte stellata" as the whirlwind of shows continues.
During his career, he has regularly donated his earnings to Sendai and Miyagi, including his hometown ice rink. Now, he has the chance to reflect on the events of 12 years ago.
When announcing this show back in January, he said: "I want this to be about everyone's remembrance of 3.11, like what they thought when they were looking up at the sky that evening.
"I want this to be an opportunity to bring people together. As someone who lives in Sendai, I can't remember the last time I saw as many stars as I did that night.
"It turned pitch black just like that and the electricity was out. It was so dark in the city but I remember thinking how bright the stars were then."
Hanyu's "Gift" illustrated book
Even as the circuit of ice shows wears on, Hanyu has been busy away from his skates too.
According to Japanese popular culture news site MANTANWEB, his recent "Gift" show at the Tokyo Dome is being turned into an illustrated book.
Japanese manga specialists CLAMP have been tasked with drawing the book, which is set to be published in AB page size over 64 pages by Kodansha on 1 September.
The book is due to tell the story of the ice show in illustrated picture format, with words by Hanyu, with non-Japanese translations a possibility in future.
Ice show collaboration
Notte stellata will be Hanyu's first collaboration with others since he began performing his self-productions.
Three-time gymnastics Olympic gold medallist Uchimura Kohei is due to make a surprise appearance – in an as-yet-unknown role – in the show, which will also star his former choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne Turok and former training mate Jason Brown, in addition to fellow Japanese skatersMiyahara Satoko, Suzuki Akiko, Tanaka Keiji, Mura Takahito and Hongo Rika.
Hanyu and Uchimura, who is six years Hanyu's senior, both retired competitively last year, the former in July and the latter in March.
Throughout their careers, the two showed mutual admiration and respect, embracing a common drive to perfect their respective crafts that placed each in a league of his own. Now, they will be plying their trades together although it remains to be seen just how exactly, which only adds to the intrigue.
How the two interact on ice will be one of the big talking points from Notte stellata.