They’re known as the Kodo drummers, but their concert is about far more than merely percussion.

Coming to the Peace Center on Saturday, Kodo also features traditional Japanese music as well as dance and vocal performance in its show “Legend.”

“All of these elements — movement, dance, song — will be shown as a mixture of performing arts that are fused together and refined,” said Tamasaburo Bando, artistic director of the group.

“While stressing the profound, it will also have moments of light-hearted splendor,” Bando added.

Kodo, based on Sado Island, Japan, has traveled internationally for more than 30 years, featuring the group’s wide array of the world’s oldest instruments, drums.

The group is known for its concentrated discipline and remarkable precision, nurtured through a rigorous system of apprenticeship on Sado Island.

Kodo’s concerts include highly synchronized pieces based on traditional rhythms of Japan as well as works by contemporary songwriters and Kodo members as well.

Fans of Kodo will notice that Bando, the artistic director since 2011, strives to create a greater unity among the various pieces included in the program.

“Kodo concerts used to have singular items lined up and presented as separate pieces,” Bando said. “For this performance, I want to make an evening-long experience with one large current.”

The group’s emphasis on tradition extends to its costumes.

“The costumes will be simple, and the performers will be dressed in a way that makes the most of their physiques,” Bando said. “However, the movement of the costumes will be flowing, magnificent and new. I want to produce an atmosphere never seen before.”

The word “Kodo” translates to “heartbeat” — “the primal source of rhythm” — and also “children of the drum,” according to the group’s website. The word’s second meaning reflects “Kodo’s desire to play the drums simply, with the heart of a child,” the website states.

Kodo seeks to create a primal, even spiritual, atmosphere in concert.

“Drumming is simultaneously the drummer’s prayer and a comfort to the audience’s soul,” Bando said.

Since the group’s debut at the Berlin Festival in 1981, Kodo has given more than 3,100 performances on five continents.

Kodo is being presented in Greenville as a part of the Peace Center’s Place for Everyone Series, which offers tickets at less than half the usual price, beginning at $10.