Hālau Nā Mamo O Pu‘uanahulu

Tomomi Matsumoto lives near Shibuya in Meguro, Tokyo and owns a clothing store. When Tomomi was 18 years old, she had a strange dream in which “three girls with long hair came into my room. They were talking to me in an unknown language. I didn’t know who they were.” She was awaken by a phone call from her mother who surprisingly told her that she just had the same dream. Tomomi and her mother visited Hawai‘i a week later and watched hula performed for the first time. “I was so shocked…the girls in my dream were actually hula dancers,” Tomomi recalls.

In 2006, just before HNMOP came to Japan, Tomomi was diagnosed with a serious disease. She remembers, “It was a very difficult time for me. But when I heard that HNMOP was starting class in Tokyo, I was so happy! Joining their hālau was my dying wish. Then one day my doctor said, ʻyour illness is gone.’ It was a miracle and I can truly say that hula saved my life.”