Yuzuru Hanyu's Prayer for Repose. March 8, 2025 Daily Sports Newspaper!

On the evening of March 7th, at Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Miyagi, Hanyu spoke carefully after finishing the first day of his ice show, notte stellata, for which he serves as the producer. It has been nearly 14 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Hanyu, who was also affected by the disaster in his hometown of Sendai, first held notte stellata in 2023 with the desire to deliver hope that would bring smiles to people's faces. The title, meaning starlit sky in Italian, was named after the beautiful starry sky he saw after the earthquake when the city was completely dark due to a power outage, which gave him a sense of hope. This year, the third year of the show, Mansai Nomura, a Kyogen actor, was invited as a special guest. SEIMEI, a program that has become synonymous with Hanyu, uses music from the movie Onmyoji, in which Nomura starred as Abe no Seimei. The two also had a dialogue 10 years ago. Performing with Nomura has been Hanyu's strong desire since the show's inception. [New Frontier Through Collaboration of Kyogen and Figure Skating] The collaboration between figure skating and Kyogen led the audience to a new frontier. The show, divided into two parts, began with notte stellata, which Hanyu also performed at the exhibition of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, where he won a gold medal. After the opening, Hanyu took the microphone and said, We, the skaters here, will perform so that each of us can shine and become stars for all of you. Following this, a dazzling lineup of skaters from Japan and abroad each gave passionate performances, reaching the first climax at the end of the first part. MANSAI Bolero, a performance combining Kyogen and dance music, which Nomura first premiered in 2011 with feelings of prayer and rebirth, was presented on the ice. Nomura, dressed in a hunting robe (kariginu), danced on a special stage on the skating rink, surrounded by six skaters including Hanyu, Shae-Lynn Bourne, Satoko Miyahara, Akiko Suzuki, Takahito Mura, and Keiji Tanaka. Honestly, it still feels a bit surreal, like a dream, but I feel that we have approached a level of skating and show composition that is worthy of accepting Mr. Nomura, Mansai Nomura, Hanyu said, expressing his joy of performing together.