Tag: Echoes of Life

We congratulate Yuzuru Hanyu on his third solo ice show, Echoes of Life! This is a translation of the statement from Yuzuru on the Echoes of Life website. More to come.

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For as long as I can remember, I have always been thinking at the back of my mind about what it means ‘to be alive’. After experiencing the Great East Japan Earthquake, I also met the survivors of many other disasters and felt their memories and emotions. In what has felt like a rapidly increasing series of natural disasters all around Japan and hardship around the world in recent years, I have been repeating the process of finding the answer — losing sight of it, searching, finding and hypothesising, through my study of bioethics, my own lived experiences and personal philosophy — to what it means ‘to be alive’. 

In a world overflowing with information, where it seems that if you were to turn your gaze outwards, you would lose sight of yourself; where it feels that you are continually feeling your own and other people’s pain, I wonder what ‘life’ means. I wonder what ‘myself’ entails. I composed this story and these programs, hoping they can be a ‘hint’ to finding an answer to these extraordinary questions.

I’m sure that there is nothing in this world that only I alone can do. In the current age where AI and technology are advancing, the things that only mankind can do are starting to vanish rapidly. 

However, I believe that if the team creating this [performance] and the people who come to watch us at the venue are together, that ‘moment’ will transform into something only “we” can do. With the world’s greatest team, and with every one of you together, in order to create the greatest of experiences, I will go forth with all my heart and soul and with my very utmost, to deliver my performance to you.

Hanyu Yuzuru

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私は「生きている」ということについて、物心ついた頃から漠然と考えてきました。そして東日本大震災を経て、また、様々な災害に遭われた方と出会い、記憶や想いに触れ、加えて、近年急増しているように感じる日本各地の天災や世界中の困難を目にする毎に、学んできた「生命倫理」と、考え、感じてきた私が持つ哲学の中で私が「生きている」ということ、「生きている」意味について答えを探しては見失い、また探して見つけて仮定してということを繰り返してきました。

ふと目を外に向ければ、私たち自身を見失ってしまうような、情報に溢れた社会の中、自分の痛みも他人の痛みも感じ続けてしまうような世の中で、「命」とは何か。「わたし」とは何か。そんな途方もない問いへのヒントになりたいと思い、物語とプログラムを綴りました。

きっと、私にしかできないなんてことは、この世には存在しないと思います。AIやテクノロジーが発展している今、人間にしかできないこともどんどんとなくなり始めています。

ただきっと、創り上げていくチームと、公演を観てくださる皆さんと一緒なら、その一瞬は「私たち」にしかできないことに変わると信じています。

世界最高峰のチームと、そして、皆さんと一緒に、最上級の体験をしていただけるよう、心を込めて、魂を込めて、全身全霊で滑り、届けていきます。

羽生結弦