Today, it is estimated there are 400,000 people in Japan involved with the hula dance. With millions of Japanese traveling to Hawai’i on vacation every year, a fascination for all things Hawaiian has developed into a growing passion for the native Hawaiian 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. With more people dancing hula in Japan than the islands where the dance was born, Tokyo Hula will explore 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. What is the relationship between hula schools in Hawai’i and their branches in Japan? How is the growth of interest in hula in Japan viewed in both countries? Tokyo Hula is a documentary film that 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.
Tokyo Hula recently completed research and development with support from the Diversity Development Fund from ITVS; R & D funding from Pacific Islanders in Communications; and a Travel and Study Grant from the Jerome Foundation. Production in Japan and Honolulu scheduled to begin in 2011. To help Lisette begin production of the final film in the hula trilogy, please consider making a donation to the project. All donors will be acknowledged in the credits of the film.
