Tokyo Hula

Today, an estimated 400,000 people in Japan are involved with the hula dance. What first began with small cultural centers advertising hula as a low-stress form of exercise to middle-aged housewives in the 1980’s has blossomed as a younger generation of Japanese students decided to seriously study the ancient hula traditions. Many moved to Hawai’i to study the dance under kumu hula (hula masters) and then returned to Japan to open their own schools. Fueled by economics, the hula has experienced an explosion in popularity in the last ten years in Japan. Tokyo Hula explores the personal stories of Japanese teachers and students of the hula to reveal the challenges and ways in which the hula dance has been transplanted and translated into a Japanese context and setting.

Many if not most of the Japanese schools are affiliated with Hawaiian hula hālau (schools) and kumu hula who also travel to Japan to teach and perform. With Japanese hula students learning the Hawaiian language, taking up the ‘ukulele, and seriously studying the ancient and modern traditions of the dance, they have also begun to participate in hula competitions in Hawai’i and started their own competitions in Japan as closer relationships with Hawaiian hula masters have developed. Tokyo Hula celebrates the bonds between the two island cultures of Hawai’i and Japan by examining over a hundred years of intercultural exchange and historical connections through Hawaiian music and dance.