Well, first of all, I am not a particular fan of any figure skaters before. But when I saw Yusuru Hanyu's Gold medal winning performance in France during the Olympic game back in 2014, I knew he was a very special one. He really got a talent and what more, a strong and beautiful spirit... He became the first Asian male figure skaters who won the Olympic Gold medal.
During the time, his hometown Sendai was still badly suffering from the huge damage caused by the notorious North Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011. He himself lost a skate link to practice for awhile. I imagine that he was strongly determined to win the Gold medal to empower the local people and fans who had been supporting him since he was 4 year-old. Imagine the huge pressure he put on himself.... in such a big stage as a teenage athlete...!
The beauty and how he was during the performance ----reminded me of a hero in one of my favorite comic books in my high school hood, "Eight Clouds Rising". The hero was a Shinto shaman who had a special power and ability to use a legendary sword to cut and expel the evil human spirits accumulated since the time of mythology that could devour the human world. In order to do that he had to be in a trans state to attract and become one with the pure positive spirits, and the condition was to have no ego during the white magic ceremony. In the state of attracting and becoming one with the pure divine spirits, his face changes into a beautiful divine androgynous.
Yuzuru also has a very stoic side as a perfectionist athlete. However, after the performance, he shows very gentle character. He likes Winnie the Pooh, so right after his performance, many fans throw stuffed animals of Pooh on to the skate link instead of bouquets.
SEIMEI is the music he chose for Pyeongchang Olympic game in Korea in 2018.
With this special music, he became a Champion again!.
Actually, SEIMEI is a name of a famous Onmyoji (Master of Yin yang : Abeno Seimei), a white shaman like figure in Japanese history lived during Heian period in Kyoto. He is believed to protected the capital city and the Imperial family with his special power. There are novels, comics, and movies about this legendary figure. Seimei-jinja shrine in Kyoto dedicated to him is a very popular sites as a power spot among many fans. ⭐️You can see his Gold medal winning performance "SEIMEI" from the following site. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joZmOrknpRE
⭐️Just recently, he won a Gold medal in Four Continent Figure Skating Championships 2020 in Korea. You can see his almost perfect performance from Youtube. Just amazing!!
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About comic books: " Yakumo Tatsu (「八雲立つ」）”
English title: "Eight Clouds Rising" (from Wikipedia)
<Plot summary>
Kuraki Fuzuchi is a handsome and quiet young man who has immense psychic powers and sword skills. He meets Takeo Nanachi, a college student with similar powers.
The story opens with Nanachi traveling to a small shrine in the mountains to purify his deceased grandfather’s sword in a festival that only occurs every 49 years. There he meets Kuraki and later accidentally stumbles upon Kuraki’s initiation ritual as a Shaman. From there on, their lives are inexplicitly intertwined as they encounter ghosts, spirits, demons, and other characters with supernatural powers while the author provides a parallel running story depicting their previous life.
As a human, anyone has more or less egos, such as fear, anger, gealous, ignorance, etc.etc... but any kinds of small "ego" =weak points could attract evil spirits that has the same vibrations and the sharmanic work could be in danger... (I think this type of story is archetype, so repeated in any heroic stories in any cultures). As a shaman, inner strength and inner purity, and selflessness was required on the hero as a high school student. At the very end is very ....sad and dramatic!
Wow, to my great surprise, there is TV series out of this comics, and kindle versions are available from amazon! (I just found out during my research to write this English blog) Also, from August 2018, the animator, Natsuki Itsumi has started to write the next episodes!!
I'm glad to know how popularly this series are until today since 1992.
