When kumu hula Aloha Dalire first went to Japan in 1990 to teach her art, she could reach maybe 100 students. Now she estimates that number at 2,000.

While the Japanese love of hula is decades old, local hula instructors and tourism officials say the number of enthusiasts is at its highest point yet. In addition, the number of Japanese visitors who come to Hawai'i specifically for hula instruction is growing.

Guitars and 'ukulele welcomed more Japanese hula dancers this weekend as they competed in the Hula Ho'olauna Aloha festival, which drew 29 Japanese and five Hawai'i halau. The dancers who performed at Ala Moana Center Saturday and at the Royal Hawaiian Coconut Grove yesterday came to be judged by the masters, to show their skill and to learn more about the art.

Some 400 people participated in the festival as competitors or in exhibition performances. When the festival began four years ago, it drew 78, said Ryokichi Tamaki, senior vice president for marketing contract for JALPAK, one of the sponsors of the competition.

An estimated 400,000 people in Japan are involved with hula. Traveling across the Pacific to be at the heart of the Hawaiian culture they emulate and embrace, these Japanese are drawn to the rhythm and sway of the dance and have spread the hula throughout their country while enhancing a cultural exchange that is also good for businesses.

They also want to learn about Hawaiian culture, history, protocol, hula dress and more. People are learning the Hawaiian language in Japan, taking up the 'ukulele, and singing Hawaiian songs and chants, said kumu hula Frank Kawaikapuokalani Hewett. Halau are everywhere and many are affiliated with local teachers.

"Over there in the last 10 years the push and the popularity has tripled," said Hewett, Ho'olauna Aloha competition adviser who also teaches hula in Japan. "It's like everybody is wearing aloha shirts. Everybody is wearing mu'u."

Tamaki said his company and other sponsors hope to increase tourism here by giving support to competitions that create lasting relationships between Japan and Hawai'i dancers. The cultural exchange would benefit each group in the long run and encourage more travel between the Pacific islands, he said.

"We like to invest our money into the Hawaiian culture and the Japanese culture getting together," he said.

With established kumu hula taking the dance to Japan, the people there are learning an authentic style, said Dalire, whose halau has won numerous awards in competition, including several Miss Aloha Hula titles.

A strict traditionalist, Dalire said she is comfortable knowing Japan students are learning from Hawaiian teachers such as Johnny Lum Ho, Ray Fonseca, Sonny Ching and others.

"I teach them exactly like I do my halau here and in California," she said. "So much so, I can rest assured and hold my head up high when my Japanese students perform. I'm very proud of them."

Japanese tourists spend about $240 a day in Hawai'i, said Kiyoko Tanji, general manager of Hawai'i Tourism Japan, a marketing contractor for the state. Tanji estimated that the number of hula fans in Japan is 300,000 to 400,000.

"They are important because they make a trip to Hawai'i at least once a year to take hula lessons or attend hula competitions," she said. "They're also important because they shop for hula-related items, which tend to be rather expensive if you purchase them in Japan."

BIG GRASS SHACK

Miyuki Seto, a freelance writer for the Japanese hula magazine Hula Le'a, said she thinks the number of people involved with hula in Japan could be more than 400,000. Hula lessons there range from $100 to $250 a month, she said.

The dance has inspired many businesses in Japan that are found in Hawai'i, including Hawaiian jewelry, Hawaiian-style dress shops, hula implement stores and costume companies, Seto said.

Hewett, who has been teaching in Japan since 1990, said that on his first trip there he would conduct three to four workshops a day with each attracting about 100 students.

Today, Hewett said, he has changed his approach to teaching and now works with eight halau, each having about 200 students. Hula has gotten so popular in Japan that people recognize him at airports and restaurants, Hewett said.

"I think they value the beauty of the hula," he said. "I think more than any other culture in the world the Japanese really value the aesthetic beauty."

ALL THINGS HAWAIIAN

The students are drawn to the dance by the music and flowing motions but they also want the exercise and to learn more about the culture, said Rie Iwanaga, a Japan resident and student of kumu hula Rich Pedrina of Kane'ohe.

"I used to think that all you need is your feeling, not a special skill, to dance hula," said Iwanaga, 43. "It wasn't so at all."

Iwanaga, who has taken lessons for three years, said she realized that a dancer must understand the song and language and learn more about the culture to dance well. So she studies with Pedrina, who has translated books about hula from English into Japanese to help his students study the dance form.

Pedrina, 40, said he recently opened a halau in Japan and that the decision forced him to focus on his business plan and address values and criticisms about selling out the culture. The amount of money he could make had a lot to do with his decision, he said, but so did the Japanese students' desire to learn, a love of travel and a wish to promote and expand his style of dancing.

"I can understand when people say we are selling out," Pedrina said. "It was the hardest thing for me to accept. But what had made me think differently is when I go to Japan my halau benefits. It's not just me."

Japanese student Chieko Kobayashi, 50, said learning the hula has stirred a desire to learn more about about things Hawaiian, including the language, the 'ukulele and Hawaiian quilting. But it is the dance that captures her emotionally.

"Dancing makes me feel I can be just my soul, nothing else," Kobayashi said.

Correction: A student of kumu hula Rich Pedrina has translated books about hula from English into Japanese. Information in a previous version of this story was not clear.