OTO ZA Group, a well-known Japanese art troupe, will perform on the wadaiko drum at HCM City’s Opera House on December 11 to bring the curtain down on the Japanese Culture Month in the city and the Mekong-Japan Exchange year.

“We hope the beat of wadaiko drum will be the bridge sending message between hearts...and tie the relationship between Japan and people of the Mekong region,” the group said.

There is enormous range in the size of the Japanese drum and the sounds it produces.

OTO ZA Group, which developed from a wadaiko class on Koya Mountain in Wakayama Province in 2001, is known through its musical plays based on legends and fairy tales, using drums as well as flutes.

The eight-man group has performed in more than 60 countries and territories in Asia and Europe and has rewritten many Japanese folk songs and children’s songs for drums.

The Mekong-Japan Exchange Year is aimed at enhancing the understanding, collaboration, and partnership between the countries in the Mekong region and Japan.

There have been numerous exchange programmes in all of the countries since the beginning of this year.

The Japanese Culture Month in HCM City featured a series of cultural events highlighting traditional and modern Japanese culture, education, and arts.

They include “100 Designs of Japan Today,” an exhibition of modern Japanese architecture, an award ceremony for a haiku poetry contest held by Tuoi Tre newspaper, a seminar on Japanese studies at the Equatorial Hotel, a film festival at Thang Long Cinema, and several others.

The concert will be organised by the Japanese Condulate General in HCM City.

Free tickets will be available until December 17 at the consulate on Nguyen Huy Street, District 1./.