Profile

Born and raised in Iwatashi, Shizuoka, Yu Natsume studied abroad in Sydney, Australia, in 2008. During her stay, she completed a yoga teacher training course (registered yoga teacher, two-hundred-hour level) at Power Living. Since returning to Japan, Yu has been actively involved in the management of Studio+Lotus8 as well as in the editing of Yogini, a yoga lifestyle magazine. As an employee at Lotus8, Yu reaffirmed the joy she feels in being a part of the yoga community as she helps out in the preparation of the studio’s workshops and translation and interpretation works.

After resigning her position at the studio, Lu took up offering classes exclusively for corporates at privately owned gyms. Currently, she teaches at Roppongi for a foreign firm and also gives special classes to employees of Muji. Yu is also an integral member of HelloYoga’s event organization team.

Having experience working for a Japanese firm as a jewelry designer, Yu understands the stress involved in Japanese corporate life and thus understands which yoga poses may benefit her clients. Dealing with long working hours and the difficulty of getting maternity leave are some factors that make corporate life in Japan difficult and stressful. Depending on her clients’ needs and work style (for instance whether their jobs consist of sitting long hours at the desk or standing long hours waiting on customers), Yu introduces yoga sequences that helps students physically and spiritually release their accumulated stress. Closely instructing them on their breathing, meditation methods, and slow poses, Yu hopes her students will rediscover their true selves through yoga.

Growing Up

Largely influenced by her dance music-loving father, Yu spent her childhood exposed to music, dance, theatre, and the arts in the natural setting of the country. In junior high, she began studying hip-hop dance at a local and renowned dance studio run by her father’s friend. (Exile’s Akira was a former classmate at the studio.) Her experience and training of this time has greatly helped her in the physical aspects of learning yoga. While continuing her studies in dance, Yu enrolled in a high school specializing in the arts. She took up studying design, Japanese painting, dying, sculpture, oil painting, and art history. A gifted artist, Yu won several art competitions; however, despite the expectations people held for her future success as an artist, Yu quickly tired of the competitiveness of the art world, where “creating to be recognized” seemed to be everything. She also began to tire of the aggressive competitiveness found in the dance industry. Like many modern-day artists who are influenced by the social trait of “it being ok to exist for only one’s ego,” Yu too found herself becoming an artist that created for self-satisfaction. Nevertheless, she took notice that art created from the soul can have a significant impact on and connection to another’s soul. Art can be something loving, spiritual, and soothing. A world void of competition and the deprivation of others’ happiness was what Yu found ideal, and thus she began to seek for such a philosophy or mindset to become her spiritual axis.

Because of this early revelation, Yu strongly identifies with the teachings of the Yoga Sutra, which contains something on the lines of, “Be nothing. Live a humble life. Act only for others. A humble life means eternal peace of mind.” Yu hopes to lead a life where “others can be appreciative of your doings instead of leading a life where you are boastful of them.”

When Yu turned sixteen years old, someone stole a ring that was given to her by her mother. This incident left her wondering whether the thief actually found the ring worthwhile of stealing and whether the thief found true happiness from taking it. She was struck about how a piece of jewelry can mean more than precious metals and stones to its original owner. Jewelry’s true value can only be recognized by its owner who holds it with sentimental value. This idea led Yu to become interested in custom-made jewelry. After graduating from high school, Yu enrolled in a school specializing in jewelry design and eventually joined a large wedding jewelry company as a designer of custom-made rings. She has personally designed over three hundred wedding bands for newlyweds. Her deep interest in music also gave her the opportunity to design for major musicians such as AI and BENNIE-K. Yu worked as a designer for several years in Nagoya and Ginza and found her job rewarding in bringing happiness to the lives of others.

After resigning her position as a designer, she studied abroad in Australia and discovered yoga, which offered the spiritual and peaceful life and community she desired.