At least two Chinese generations have grown up playing interactive games that resemble taiko, the Japanese drum style.

Yet an actual taiko show, let alone one designed for young children, is something new for local audiences.

After touring in Taiwan for about 10 years, Japanese taiko group Tamakko-Za will make its Chinese mainland debut next month at Shanghai Daning Theatre.

It is a massive show of music and dance, during which the tradition of the instrument merges with contemporary and humorous stage pieces.

Of course, the focus is on the drums, but it is also an acrobatics show and a stage comedy.

Tamakko-Za's taiko show is a massive show of music and dance. Photos: Courtesy of Daning Theatre

The event's co-producer, Chen Jyun-yi, said he thought about introducing family-friendly Japanese performances to Taiwan when he was studying in Japan. He chose Tamakko-Za out of more than 10,000 Japanese taiko groups.

"Out of such a large pool, there are much fewer dedicated specifically to children. I believe young audiences would be more receptive to Tamakko-Za because of their performing approach: they are not just instrumentalists, but actors. Their show is actually theater and taiko," Chen told the Global Times.

Besides drums, the taiko group explores a wide range of traditional musical instruments, including flutes and sasaras, the clappers made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord.

For the Shanghai show, Chen said, the group will bring instruments weighing a total of up to 300 kilograms.

He said he believes the show will likely be the first taiko experience for many children in the audience. He admitted that keeping young children at their seats for 70 minutes is no easy task, but welcomed the challenge for his expertise and the song order.

"The core of the show is storytelling through musical instruments. The group will perform more than 10 songs, all original. Through their experience of more than 30 years, they have a perfect understanding of what effects each instrument can make," Chen said.

Chen called attention to one piece emulating the sounds of a train journey. "You will hear the sounds of a train going through the tunnel, passing the mountain, or arriving at a stop. Amid the dang dang dang, you will hear the sounds of farmlands and butterflies that you encounter on the way," Chen noted.

Chen added that having watched reactions from adult audiences over the last decade, he's certain that parents accompanying their children won't simply fall asleep.

Instead, he said, there is often a lot of sharing and discussions about the performance.

The group started in 1984. Besides the taiko, the members also devote themselves to other Japanese musical instruments teaching.

Tomoko Onishi, culture consul at the Consulate General of Japan in Shanghai, pointed out that taiko is historically an indispensable musical instrument in Japan's various ritual ceremonies, and an important part of the country's tradition, art and customs.

"Taiko occurred in ancient Japanese myth, and was already found among relics dating back to between the end of the 3rd century to the 6th century," Tomoko Onishi said.

It has toured widely all over the world, including the Philadelphia International Theater Festival for Children in 1997.

Thea Diamond, then the education director at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, wrote that companies like Tamakko-Za make visible again cultures that have disappeared through time and history.

"By watching these performers drum, chant and move together in ritual dance, we participate in the recovery of the past, while widening and deepening our own understanding of fellow inhabitants of the Earth," Diamond wrote.

"On a sizzling Shanghai summer night, it is nice to take your kids to a theater piece of human and nature based on the traditional and majestic percussions of Japan," Tomoko Onishi  said.

Date: August 12, 7:30 pm; August 13, 10:30 am and 3:30 pm

Address: 4/F, 1222 Pingxingguan Road

平型关路1222号4楼

Admission: 120 yuan ($17.93) to 280 yuan

Call 5169-1234 for details