About ten years ago, a bunch of little skaters were soliciting signatures for a petition on Sendai’s main street Ichibancho. The skating rink in Sendai had failed financially, and there were no place for them to practice. One of them was Yuzuru Hanyu.
I was back from living abroad, and for some reason I knew that there was a young skating prodigy in Sendai. I thought I might as well sign the petition. It’s somewhat rare to see young male skaters, so I said to the cutest one amongst the three 10-ish-year-olds lined up there, “As you would expect from Sendai! There are quite a few boys here!” He was so nervous he froze on the spot and didn’t answer.
Without missing a beat, the child beside him with a
kokeshi doll and mochi-like face answered smoothly, “I suppose so! The boys work so hard~but now they can’t train~ Sendai is the root of figure skating in Japan too, such a shame, I really don’t understand," ending with a pout.
Eyes creased, he was smiling as he talked about this sad incident.
He was quite clearly thinking, “This person knows the history of Sendai’s figure skating but doesn’t know me. What I should do right now is increase the petition count~” There was a sparkle in his eyes, and cleverness that surprised me.
After I signed, I asked my friend who lives in Sendai, “Isn’t there a young skating genius in Sendai?” My friend answered in surprise, “You mean Yuzuru Hanyu, right? That was the boy in the middle who spoke.” I turned around, he was already surrounded by Sendai aunties and drowned in the crowd.
At that time, both Japan and Sendai were at rock-bottom in regression. I felt so sorry that perhaps his wish to restore the rink wouldn’t come true. I was an adult, but I wasn’t able to do anything.
In my memory, the cute one was Hino Ryuju. Next to him was Hanyu, and beside him was Tanaka Keiji. It made sense that Hanyu was there, but why were the other two also in Sendai? I couldn’t ever make sense of that, and it’s somewhat vague in my memory.
All three of them were wearing black jerseys with gold from the shoulder to the back and at the wrist. I have no doubt about that part.
But still, the ice rink closed and Sendai’s year-round rink disappeared.
Then, Arakawa Shizuka got the gold medal and resurrected the rink through her remarks at the press conference.
From the bottom of my heart, I was amazed at the power of this gold medal. I’ve always wondered about the impression that gold medal left upon those kids petitioning on Ichibancho that winter day.
And then, the great earthquake happened. When I learned that the ice rink had collapsed and that Hanyu was running around Japan looking for places to train, I felt so frustrated and sad that I couldn’t do anything. To this day, I still feel sorry about that.
Digression. Seeing his image after a long time, I was surprised “Oh! That young boy, was a girl?!” My mom, “Somehow kokeshi doll
grew up to look like a girl, didn’t he?"
When he got the gold medal at Sochi and said “I realize I still couldn’t do anything.” I think he meant it, truly, from heart. No matter how hard he wished for it and tried as a child, his rink shuttered in front of his eyes. But with a single Olympic gold medal, the ice rink was revived. I wonder what dream he was hoping to fulfill with his gold medal?
This all came to mind because of the article about his donations to the ice rink, and also the 7th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake coming up. I thought there might be people who’d be delighted with this tale from Hanyu’s childhood. I am now his fan, and I started my Twitter account because of him.
truly I don't want him to change anything. I just want him to skate the best he can and not get injured preferably give us a clean skate at worlds so he can have a little confidence boost to carry through to next season
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