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https://web.archive.org/web/20170123024433/http://webronza.asahi.com/national/articles/2014041600009.html
2014.04.17
Post-Sochi: Can Yuzuru Hanyu become the next Mao Asada? (3) - Beyond the Manufactured Image of “Yuzuru”
Unlike Daisuke Takahashi's charisma, Mao Asada possesses a kind of popular appeal that reaches a much wider audience in Japan. That appeal brings more people into contact with figure skating and revitalizes the sport from the ground up. Could Yuzuru Hanyu perhaps take on that role? Watching the frenzy that followed the Sochi Olympics, people are beginning to think so.
“Japanese people like strong athletes who can compete on the world stage. He's the first Japanese man ever to win Olympic gold, and he's so young. Hanyu certainly has what it takes to become an idol representing the skating world.”
“After all, he's already won the Olympic gold medal that Mao-chan never managed to win.”
If Yuzuru Hanyu really were placed in a position where he had to bear such a heavy responsibility, would he be all right?
The expectation is that he will become a strong champion who keeps winning all the way to the PyeongChang Olympics. That is ultimately up to his own training and mental preparation. There's little point in us worrying about it, and to some extent, there's probably no need to worry.
Instead, perhaps we should devote our efforts to protecting him from external pressures and scandals unrelated to competition. If he is to become the figure who leads the world of figure skating in Mao Asada's place, the entire industry must unite and do everything in its power to protect him.
Another concern is whether being elevated to superstar status might go to his head or make him complacent.
This was one aspect of Mao Asada that never changed, no matter how much attention she attracted or how popular she became. Even after becoming such an extraordinary figure, she never grew arrogant or behaved haughtily. Of course, that was part of what made Mao such a unique personality.
Compared with Mao Asada, Yuzuru Hanyu is a fairly “ordinary” boy. Although he hasn't shown it lately, he can be somewhat prone to getting carried away. I was a little concerned about that side of him, so when I recently managed to get just ten minutes for a one-on-one interview, I took the opportunity to talk with him. To my great relief, he seemed remarkably unchanged from before.
“He hasn't changed at all, even after becoming an Olympic gold medalist,” another reporter remarked admiringly. Looking at Hanyu now, it's hard to imagine him being brought down by complacency or overconfidence.
But what about from here on?
For now, he's frantically focused on the tasks immediately ahead of him: the World Championships right after the Olympics, followed without a break by a tour of ice shows. The commercial frenzy on a scale he never imagined will come later. Before the Sochi Olympics, he had already achieved a certain level of success and become a popular skater. What awaits him now, however, will be incomparably more complicated and chaotic than anything he experienced back then.
Until now, Japanese male skaters, no matter how popular they became, had been able to remain outside "this world." Hanyu is now being thrust into a world experienced only by superstars on the scale of Mao Asada.
For example, although such a thing should never happen in sport, there may be certain competitions in which things take an undesirable turn, such as Hanyu being allowed to win despite lackluster performances in order to maintain his popularity. Will he be able to endure being placed in such a helpless situation, when all he wants as a teenage athlete is to devote himself to hard work and self-improvement until PyeongChang?
Mao Asada's greatness lies in her ability to keep moving forward, unchanged, sustained solely by her love of skating, even in such circumstances.She gave no thought to the amounts of money generated by her performances or to her social influence. Even if she thought about such things to some extent, she was never swayed by them. Mao Asada may be the only person capable of continuing to skate with such a pure heart. It could be said that her extraordinary nature as a person was what allowed both her own popularity and the popularity of figure skating to flourish in such a remarkable balance.
Even so, compared with when she was a child, Asada seems to have smiled less as she continued to occupy her current position. Changes had certainly taken place in her that would not have occurred if her struggles had been limited to difficulties within the sport, such as problems with her jumps or concerns about her training environment.
Even Mao Asada was placed in a position where she could not help but change. Will Yuzuru Hanyu really be all right?
I believe that even if he becomes an unquestionably popular star, he is not the kind of person who will grow complacent. Even if he did become a little conceited, thinking himself rather impressive, I do not believe that would ruin him as an athlete. On that point, I have faith in him.
But he might, to some extent, shape himself to fit public expectations and the manufactured image of “Yuzuru Hanyu.” And he might do so with all his might, simply because he wants to live up to everyone's expectations.
After the Olympics, as Hanyu was celebrated as a new hero and prince, a skater close to him said he felt sorry for him.
“The news about Yuzuru that's going around now... doesn't it sound as if they're talking about a completely different person? That's not who he is. I feel sorry for him, and I'm worried about him.”
The heroic image portrayed by television variety shows and other programs was strange enough, but I was also concerned that newspaper coverage of his character had become almost entirely focused on his experience of the earthquake disaster.
Various accounts explained that his experience of the disaster and the difficulties he faced with his training environment afterward were what had made him mentally strong. But that narrative was far too simplistic.
Yuzuru Hanyu was already strong long before the earthquake. The disaster was certainly a profound experience, but it did not fundamentally change who he was. I cannot shake the feeling that by focusing so heavily on earthquake-related stories, the media are losing sight of his essential strength, his innate qualities, and his appeal as a person.
It makes you realize that this is how heroic images are created, shaped to suit the convenience of those doing the reporting. One column drew parallels between the way Hanyu was being portrayed and the cases of Mamoru Samuragochi and Haruko Obokata. That comparison was certainly apt. Those two became the talk of the town largely because of the stories surrounding them, rather than the musical works or research themselves. The same thing is happening to Hanyu: everything other than the main point, his skating, is becoming the subject of public attention.
Of course, Hanyu is different from those who actively sought to exploit the images and narratives that had taken on lives of their own.
In truth, he probably no longer wants to talk about the earthquake. I cannot forget the pained smile he gave me when he spoke at length about his experiences shortly after the disaster.
“When I talk about this kind of thing, I'll probably dream about that day again tonight.”
Even last season, when the NHK Trophy was held in Miyagi, he seemed to struggle considerably with having to answer questions about the earthquake while competing.
If what he had overcome had been an injury, an illness, or the death of a family member, he could have sent a message asking people to stop defining him solely by that experience. But when someone who has lived through the extraordinary experience of a natural disaster goes on to achieve such remarkable success, it is inevitable that he will be turned into a “star of reconstruction.”
Even so, Hanyu himself seems to make a conscious effort to speak about things he would rather not discuss, driven by his wholehearted desire that “if my existence can help the recovery effort, even just a little, then...”
The image of a hero from the disaster-stricken region, along with the various superficial images of “Yuzuru” that have taken shape around him, may cause him some suffering as he tries not to disappoint those expectations. The kind of suffering he will experience is one that Mao Asada, who was able to keep skating as herself, never had to endure.
By
yuzurujenn ·
