Ondekoza may mean “demon drummers” in Japanese but, in practice, this sinewy group of percussionists is much closer to the opposite of evil. On a return visit Thursday to the Maine Center for the Arts (they were last here in March 1996), Ondekoza drummed up an arousing storm of sound that was both elevating and humbling.

The group, which has a fervent following in North America, has for the past 29 years invigorated an astonishing relationship between the human body and instruments which range in size from a hand-held tom-tom to a 700-pound O-daiko (which possibly translates into “Paul Bunyan-size drum”). The players live a communal life of mental and physical discipline and hit the stage ready to rock.

Indeed, it’s appropriate to compare Ondekoza’s work to rock music because the energy is raucous (though always, always controlled), and the gripping moments have all the impetuosity of a good jam session. One performer even threw off his shirt and bounced vigorously into the air as he cut loose in a solo.

It would also be quite right to find some similarity between this powerful drumming and symphonic music or even jazz because there are a delicacy and musicality here that speak of studied technique, ancient artistry and modern boldness. Many pieces on the program employed not only a variety of drums but also bamboo flutes, traditional string instruments and some dance.

Although much of the mood throughout the evening gave new meaning to the phrase “tight as a drum,” there were also elements of humor such as when two musicians played one shamisen, which is like a guitar or banjo but smaller and with fewer strings. They were part Marx Brothers, part Victor Borge as they used four hands on one instrument to play hot licks — including a fragment of “Oh, Susannah.”

Ondekoza is a virile reminder of the amazing abilities of the human body — both male and female. But it pushes us to think on higher planes, too. If everyone were able to bang on drums with this type of flawless conviction and primal inhibition, the world might, idealistically speaking, be a less violent place. Hard to say, really. But that’s the type of thinking Ondekoza inspires as it beats its way into your heart.