That return is one of two turning points in Kimura’s account for Weekly Playboy’s My First Gravure Story. The first came several years earlier, when an uncomfortable debut at an outdoor pool nearly persuaded her to stop before she had properly started.
Kimura joined the Hokkaido idol group Fruity in 2019, during her first year of junior high. She had been a fan of the group and auditioned with a friend; both passed, but her friend withdrew after opposition from her parents. Kimura described herself at school as an introvert who would put her head on her desk and pretend to sleep during breaks. Her life after school, however, was filled with lessons and performances.
By the end of junior high, she wanted to pursue idol work in Tokyo. She graduated from Fruity, moved south and joined Cinderella Declaration!, performing under the name YUME. Her parents had initially opposed both decisions. Two months after the move, her mother joined her in Tokyo. “Once I decide something, I charge straight ahead,” Kimura said.
Her first swimsuit assignment came when her manager suggested a poolside photo session. The unfamiliar setting, cameras pointing from several directions and light rain left her exhausted. She went home thinking she might already be finished with swimsuit work.
The second session brought out a different response. Another member’s enthusiasm made Kimura determined not to lose, and she approached the cameras with more confidence. The resulting photographs spread on social media, followed by an offer from Weekly Young Jump.
Kimura made her magazine gravure debut in Weekly Young Jump 2022 No. 40, released September 1, as YUME of Cinderella Declaration!. Takeo Dec. photographed the feature in a Chiba studio. Kimura remembered the location bus, hair and makeup, styling and catering as her first encounter with the machinery of a full magazine shoot. She was nervous and relied closely on the photographer’s direction.
The result gave her a tangible measure of gravure’s reach. Her parents searched bookstores and convenience stores for copies, while her social-media following rose from about 10,000 to 30,000. Extra photographs from the feature were collected in the digital photobook Yume Miru Sixteen.
Kimura graduated from Cinderella Declaration! on August 16, 2023. The Muse session the following year brought her back into view, and Weekly Playboy subsequently photographed Kakurenbo in Onjuku, Chiba. Kimura had visited the town on a school trip, but this time she found herself returning for work. Unlike her first formal gravure shoot, she said she felt relaxed with the staff.
HIROKAZU photographed the hide-and-seek concept, which places Kimura in locations including closets and the narrow space beside a vending machine. Shueisha released the digital book on January 29, 2025 under her full name. It reached No. 7 on Grajapa’s monthly ranking, and the response led to six pages of previously unpublished cuts in Weekly Playboy 2025 No. 15, released March 31.
Kimura said the print appearance introduced her to many new readers and strengthened her interest in continuing gravure. The path she describes is less a single debut than a sequence of restarts: confidence found on a second attempt, then purpose recovered after a year away.
Profile
Yumeka Kimura (木村夢叶) was born March 6, 2006, in Hokkaido and is 148 cm tall.
Official X: @yumekacyan
Official TikTok: @yumeka_kimura
Digital photobooks
Yume Miru Sixteen — released September 1, 2022; photography by Takeo Dec.; ¥880 including tax.
Kakurenbo — released January 29, 2025; photography by HIROKAZU; ¥1,650 including tax.
Source: Weekly Playboy News / Shueisha
