PokeEarn Interview Yukari Miwa | PokeEarn Official Site | PokeEarn

Miwa, who was working as a schoolteacher after graduating from university, moved to the United States alone at 25 wanting to learn more about how to teach dance. While attending a dance studio in Los Angeles, she encountered yoga on a friend's recommendation.

"When I went alone, relying on a map, the place was as vast as a gymnasium and incredibly hot. It was the first time I had even seen hot yoga, and I was overwhelmed by the sight of hundreds of people from all sorts of countries doing poses. At first it was fun just to nail a pose and to face my own body."

As she kept attending the hot yoga studio, she became aware of a new sensation.

"Gradually I began to feel the harmony between body and mind, and thought, this is amazing! On top of that, yoga makes you face your breathing. I had done sports ever since childhood, but I had never even thought about controlling my breath, so it was refreshing."

Feeling that from now on it would not be just about using the body but that 'facing and caring for the body and mind will become important,' Miwa came to want to spread yoga in Japan.

"In Japan at the time, yoga had a stoic, still image. Without overthinking it, I wanted a wide range of people to first enjoy yoga in a pop, active style like the yoga culture of LA."

Miwa, who earned her qualifications while in the United States, started teaching yoga in Japan in 2006. As a popular instructor, she led the hot yoga boom.

"The yoga I teach has a lot of movement, and I demand the next step with a smile, so rather than the 'healing' type it is the 'intimidating' type (laughs). I weave philosophy, anatomy, and other old-meets-new wisdom into something pop, and perhaps because people could feel the results, I was glad that all sorts of people came to notice the appeal of yoga."

Alongside teaching, from 2007 she competed as Japan's representative at the yoga world championship, the 'International yoga asana championship,' for five years running.

"Of course, yoga is not something you compare with others. This competition is not about competing; it has a culture where yogis show off the poses they have trained hard on and praise one another."

She recalls that although she was able to approach the world championship with a clear mind in her first appearance, in her second and third years she could not do yoga well.

"Trying to live up to expectations, part of me was worried about results. I got caught up in the time limit and ended up just stringing poses together one after another. Later, even I thought, this is not yoga."

Then, in her fifth year, in 2011, Miwa brilliantly claimed the world championship, a feat achieved by a Japanese person for the first time.

"That time, I was able to take the stage conscious only of gratitude to those around me and of enjoying myself. A judge told me, 'Yukari, on stage you were not just doing poses, you were doing YOGA.'"

Miwa, who had been active as an instructor, shifted to activities beyond studio lessons after giving birth in 2015. She also changed her title to 'yoga coordinator.'

"I cannot go to the studio every day like I used to. Thinking about what I can do now, I wanted to share the joy of yoga with many people in my own way, without being bound by a set form. For example, I thought that if I made a book, I could bring the joy of yoga even to people who cannot come to a studio."

Indeed, beyond publishing books, Miwa has widened her field of activity to commercial choreography, university lectures, talks, and collaborative product development. Hosting and appearing at events in particular has become an opportunity for many people to experience the depth of yoga.

"Even at events with lots of beginners, I am pretty intense (laughs). Things like, 'Today's souvenir is sore muscles' (laughs). Yoga has the power to expand your potential, so it would be a waste to end with it just being easy. I want people to catch a glimpse of their own potential, or to feel something and take it home."

Being present at the moment a person expands their potential has become Miwa's greatest joy.

"My role is to strip away people's fixed ideas and draw out their potential. Sometimes I am passionate, sometimes I praise them, taking all kinds of approaches. Moments like, 'I trusted that it is okay to fail and gave it a try, and I did it!', when someone meets a version of themselves different from when they were struggling, make me happier than anything."

When we asked Miwa about the appeal of yoga, the very first thing she named was 'achieving harmony of mind and body.'

"I believe harmony is important in everything, not just yoga. When you overdo it and harmony breaks down, you fall out of sorts, right? Yoga lets you experience the importance of harmony up close, and being able to guide your own mind and body toward harmony through your own will is, I think, one of yoga's great appeals."

The sharing of power and energy from person to person is also part of yoga's appeal, says Miwa.

"When you do yoga in a group, the power and energy arising from each person gets shared with the whole. Some people shed tears watching my demonstration, and when I see them, I get power in return."

Miwa senses possibility in the power humans are inherently equipped with.

"Living things are inherently equipped with the power to maintain their own healthy state, and I think that in itself is a miracle. This ties into what I said earlier about expanding your own potential, but I feel yoga can give that power a push. I have seen so many people grow healthier through yoga."