Yuzuru Hanyu donated 55 million yen to his hometown rink behind his marriage announcement! Yuzuru Hanyu’s “spirit of humanity” was nurtured by his original experience of “being hit by a disaster during practice.

Figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu (28) shocked all of Japan with his sudden marriage announcement.

About 10 days earlier, on July 25, it was also announced that he had donated 5,581,272 yen to Ice Rink Sendai, a skating rink in Izumi Ward, Sendai City.

The rink has been his training base since turning pro, and the total donation now stands at 8,733,406 yen. Ice Rink Sendai has just announced that it will shorten its general operations from July to August due to the recent rise in electricity costs. The rink’s management company commented on the large donation , “Ice Rink Sendai has always been deeply loved by the locals, and they care very much about Ice Rink Sendai. We express our deepest gratitude. The superstar’s generous gesture was tinged with a deep love for his hometown.

Having experienced the rink closure as an elementary school student, Hanyu knows better than anyone the pain of not being able to skate. When the Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, he clung to the older skater he was skating with and ran out of the ice rink Sendai. His house in Sendai was completely destroyed, and for four days he lived in an evacuation shelter with his family of four huddled together in a small space about two tatami mats in size.

Hanyu was forced to leave his hometown after the rink was closed, and he struggled daily with the question, “Is it OK for me to skate alone?” He went from one rink to another across the country, learning weapons such as the quadruple salute.

The following year, in ’12, when it was decided that she would move her base to the prestigious “Cricket Club” in Toronto, Canada, she broke down in tears in front of her close friends and relatives, saying, “I don’t want to leave Sendai.