[VIDEO] Japanese Choir Famous for ‘U Boj, U Boj’ to Perform in Zagreb

Members from the well-known Japanese choir Shingetsu-kai from the Kwansei Gakuin University will perform today in the Croatian capital their anthem – the famous aria ‘U boj, u boj’, which they have sung in the Croatian language for more than 80 years…

The choir version of the song, which translated means “To the battle, to the battle”, is a Croatian patriotic song and was written by Franjo Marković and composed by Ivan Zajc in 1866, who later incorporated it as an aria into his 1876 opera Nikola Šubić Zrinski. The song now enjoys a wide popularity in Japan. At the end of World War I soldiers transmitted the tune to the members of the oldest and the most renowned Japanese male choir of the Kwansei Gakuin University, which established in 1899. Their repertoire still hosts the song today, which they do not in Japanese, but in genuine Croatia, and the group ends with it after each public performance they do.

The choir have arrived in Croatia with Jelena Yamasaki, the honorary Croatian Console advisor in Osaka, who has for the past 19 years promoted Croatian culture and its beauty to the people of Japan. With Croatia being the land of the neck tie, the group will perform today in Zagreb in the Oktogon which connects Ilica and flower square at 2pm, wearing ties specially made to commemorate their 80th anniversary.