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.

Japan’s first gold medal for men, won at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2002, brought more good news to his wounded hometown than ever before. But Hanyu’s expression was dull.

Why is there no smile on your face even though you won the gold medal? When asked at the press conference after the competition, he replied, “It’s difficult to talk about the disaster. I have to think about what I could have done,” he replied stiffly. He then added, “Now that I am a gold medalist, there are things I can do to help the recovery effort. I want to make today the start of that.” He also expressed his determination to become a star of hope for the disaster-stricken areas.

Although Hanyu has said that “as long as I am an athlete, it is almost impossible for me to be involved in direct activities,” he has done what he can to help. One such example is the donation of all royalties from his autobiography, “Blue Flame,” published in the same year, to the Ice Rink Sendai.

In January 2004, before appearing at an ice show in Morioka City, she visited Otsuchi Town in Iwate Prefecture, which was severely damaged by the earthquake, to hear from people concerned about the situation at the time. She created the program “Requiem of Heaven and Earth,” hoping to express her strength to overcome the pain, sorrow, and suffering of the victims, and danced beautifully in the exhibition and other performances.

When he turned pro last July, he also started his career at the Ice Rink Sendai, where he skated “SEIMEI” and other pieces for about 1 hour and 40 minutes in front of 88 media representatives from 38 companies at the “SharePractice” open practice on August 10.

It is still special to be able to practice here. I don’t have the opportunity to practice with various teachers like I used to, but I still feel special to be able to practice and improve myself in my hometown without leaving it. I want to grow here, and I want to do my best to contribute to my hometown, which I love, by supporting it in any way I can. I hope I can continue to walk with the people of Sendai.

This is what she said after the open practice session.

It was also in Miyagi where Hanyu stayed on March 11, 2011, his first year as a professional figure skater.

I can perform on such an important day because I am a professional figure skater, and I want to keep in mind the feelings that I can only deliver on March 11, and the feelings that people can feel only because of March 11.

On March 10-12, the 12th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, she held her first ice show as a chairperson at the Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Miyagi Prefecture. Recalling the starry sky above her head that she saw on the nighttime road to the evacuation center with her family in despair, she chose “notte stellata,” which means “star filled sky” in Italian, as the title of her show, hoping that she could send out hope like the stars that lit up the disaster area on that day and bring a smile to people’s faces, if only a little. The title of the film is “notte stellata,” which means “full of stars” in Italian. The sales of goods at the venue also centered on disaster prevention goods, hoping that the event would trigger people to think about disasters. This is something that only Hanyu can do.

Hanyu said, “Every year on March 11, I have skated in secret, praying and expressing gratitude for the disaster. （I sincerely hope that this show will bring some hope.

The rare skater expressed his feelings to the audience of 6,000 people.

With his strong feelings for his hometown Sendai, Hanyu will continue to take the ice.