Portrait by Albert Bonsfills
“As a kid, I was never good at any of the usual school sports. That made me sad, so I decided to look for something that I could be good at. When I was 14, there was a huge yo-yo boom in Japan — 20 million of them were sold around that time. I bought mine at a toy store. At first, my technique was awful, but I slowly started making progress. I learned my first 30 to 50 tricks out of a book. After that, I went to demonstration events, recorded them, and then tried to imitate them. I was totally self-taught. When I started performing professionally, I set two big goals for myself: winning the World Championship and performing with Cirque du Soleil. Back then, I felt as though my goals were out of reach, so when I finally achieved them, I was both happy and surprised. Before I had the yo-yo in my life, I didn’t have any clear ambition — I just knew I didn’t want to be a normal Japanese salary man. When I gave up my career as a systems engineer and quit my job, my father was worried. But now, my accomplishments have reassured him. My friends respect me because I took risks even though there were no guarantees those risks would pay off. My attitude has encouraged them to be braver in their lives. I’m really proud of that! Now I can perform incredible tricks with my yo-yo, but the most amazing thing I can do is motivate other people — not only as a performer, but also as a serial dreamer. Nothing is impossible if you do your best.
Check out his website.