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Yuzuru Hanyu bibliography
Japanese figure skater From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Japanese figure skater and two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu has written a best-selling autobiography series titled Blue Flames (蒼い炎, Aoi Honō) that consists of four volumes and has been sold with over 400,000 copies by June 2023. All royalties of the series were donated to his local skating rink, Ice Rink Sendai, which had been severely damaged during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. In 2023, Hanyu also wrote a picture book titled Gift with illustrations by the famous mangaka group Clamp. The story was based on his own solo ice show production Gift, which was held at Tokyo Dome the same year.[1][2][3]
Since his victory at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Hanyu has collaborated with renowned sports writers and photographers in Japan, publishing various compilation and photo books,[4][5][6][7] of which multiple ones have made it to the Oricon top 10 charts of best-selling books.[8][9][10] The photo book y with pictures from Hanyu's first professional figure skating season, published by Sports Nippon in February 2024, was awarded the Silver Award at the international 2025 Graphis Design Awards.[7][11]
In 2020, Hanyu's graduation thesis about the utilization of a "wireless inertia sensor motion capture system" in the sport of figure skating was published in the Journal of Human Sciences at Waseda University.[12][13] The thesis has been retrieved more than 100,000 times from the university's online repository.[14][15]
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Blue Flames autobiography series
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Blue Flames (蒼い炎, Aoi Honō) is a best-selling autobiography series by Japanese figure skater and ice show producer Yuzuru Hanyu who competed in the men's singles discipline and turned professional in 2022.[16][17] Regarded as one of the greatest skaters in the sport's history, he is the first two-time Olympic men's champion in 66 years with back-to-back gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics,[16] and the first male single skater to complete the Super Slam, having won all major international senior and junior titles in the course of his career.[18] On March 11, 2011, Hanyu experienced the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in his hometown of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, which fundamentally shaped his life and career.[17] In Blue Flames, he reflected on his skating career and memories of the disaster.[19][20] The series consists of four volumes, published between 2012 and 2023 by Fusosha and composed in collaboration with Japanese sportswriter Toshimi Oriyama and photographer Keiko Asakura.[21]
In June 2023, the number of sold copies exceeded 400,000 in total, making Blue Flames one of the most successful series of long-selling books in Japan.[22] All royalties and parts of the proceeds were donated for the rebuilding of Ice Rink Sendai, which had been severely damaged during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[17] According to The Nikkei, Hanyu donated a cumulative total of ¥87,330,406 (US$686,000) to his local skating rink.[23] Excerpts from the autobiography were quoted by renowned international news outlets, such as The New York Times and the Time Magazine.[19][20] In 2020, translations of the first two volumes were published in Vietnam, China, and Taiwan.[24][25] In Japan, Blue Flames III was also distributed as a limited edition with an alternative cover.[21][26] On July 6, 2023, a special collector's box including all four volumes was released by Fusosha.[27]
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Picture books
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Compilations and photo books
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Scientific works
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Notes and references
External links
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