The Mikado
HOME-GROWN SATIRE AND
ORIENTALISM IN VICTORIAN
OPERETTA
Who were Gilbert and Sullivan?
W.S. Gilbert, born November 18,
1836, and Sir Arthur Sullivan, born
May 13, 1842, were the most popular
and successful British comic opera
team of the 19th century. Gilbert
wrote the librettos, while Sullivan
wrote the music. Some of their most
famous works include The Sorcerer
(1877), H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The
Pirates of Penzance (1879), Patience
(1881), Iolanthe (1882), and The
Mikado (1885). Their works are
known for light, quick moving music
(known as patter songs) with lots of
rhyming, clever lyrics, artificial plots,
and satire.
http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/upload
edImages/articles/3909_Pirates-ofPenzance590729.jpg
What is The Mikado?
Pitti-Sing
Pictures from
an 1899
production
at the Royal
Theatre and
Opera House
http://www.topsmusicalproductions.com/
photos/Mikado%201899/mikado%201899
0006.jpg
The Mikado is a later result of
the partnership between Gilbert
and Sullivan. Rumor has it that
Gilbert was inspired when a
Japanese sword fell off of his
wall. It premiered at the Savoy
Theatre in London on March 14,
1885.
Nanki-Poo
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photos/Mikado%201899/mikado%201899
0007.jpg
Pooh-Bah and
Pitti Sing
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com/photos/Mikado%201899/mikad
o%2018990008.jpg
The Mikado
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photos/Mikado%201899/mikado%201899
0001.jpg
Ko-Ko
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om/photos/Mikado%201899/mikado
%2018990004.jpg
Katisha
http://www.topsmusicalproductions.c
om/photos/Mikado%201899/mikado
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Clips
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqCdwooyfQE
 Bristol Catholic Players 2011— “Miya Sama”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WRBJlHUZ3Q
 Bristol Catholc Players 2011— “I am so proud”
Satire on British Society
 “It was, of course, absurd to ban The Mikado on the
grounds that it might offend the Japanese. Despite its
setting the opera is quite clearly about Britain, and its
satire is directed at domestic rather than foreign targets”

Ian Bradley, The Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan (as quoted in
Beckerman, 314)
 “Though nominally Japanese, the allusions are more or
less thinly veiled sarcastic references to our native
institutions and peculiarities”

Monthly Musical Record, May 1, 1885
 Satirizes British manners, British humor, and capital
punishment
Japanophilia in Victorian England
 “According to Isaac Asimov,
Westerners thought the
Japanese ‘the cutest things one
could imagine,’ especially the
women with their kimonos,
parasols, and fans. On the other
hand, Victorian England was
awash in imperialism, having
acquired colonies around the
globe. Brits regarded nonwhite
foreigners with both benign
paternalism and outright
contempt” (Kushner)
 Japanese “colony” at
Knightsbridge
Picture taken from the
Japanese colony at
Knightsbridge
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co
mmons/5/5d/Japanese3vil.jpg
Plan for
Humphreys
Hall in the late
19th century
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09&pubid=25&filename=
fig24.gif
Spectacle
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_Media/image463-2.jpeg
http://blog.nj.com/entertainment_impact
_music/2009/07/large_mikado-operanew-jersey.jpg
Spectacle
http://www.ldjeff.com/images/show/mika
do15x.jpg
http://www.costumes.org/TA
RA/portfolio/studiocostumesh
ots/mikado9.jpg
Gilbert on The Mikado
 “The Japanese attained their present condition of
civilization very gradually, and at the date of my story
they had particular tastes, ideas, and fashions of their
own, many of which they discarded when they found out
that they did not coincide with the ideas of the more
enlightened countries of Europe. So if my readers are of
the opinion (as they very likely will be) that some of their
customs, as they are revealed in this story, are curious,
odd, or ridiculous, they must bear in mind that the Japan
of that time was unlike the Japan of today”

The Story of the Mikado Told by Sir W.S. Gilbert (London, 1921), pp.
1-2 (as quoted in Beckerman, 317).
Containment or Subversion?
 Containment: successful “othering” of the Japanese,
containing their culture through exaggeration and
orientalism

Offensive use of names, costumes, emphasis on
bloodthirstiness
 Subversion: highlights corruption of British
government, the dark humor of the English, capital
punishment, and British political hierarchy
Works Cited
 Beckerman, Michael. "The Sword on the Wall: Japanese Elements and



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Their Significance in "The Mikado"." Musical Quarterly. 73.3 (1989): 303319. Print.
'Knightsbridge Green Area: Scotch Corner and the High Road', Survey of
London: volume 45: Knightsbridge (2000), pp. 79-88. URL:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45909 Date
accessed: 12 September 2013
Kushner, Eve. "Dis-Orientation: Japan from a Western Viewpoint in
Topsy-Turvey and The Mikado." Bright Lights. 30. (2000): Print.
Plath, David W. "From the Mikado to Gung Ho: Imagining the Japanese."
Wilson Quarterly. 14.4 (1990): 21-26. Print.
Singleton, Brian. Oscar Asche, Orientalism, and British Musical Comedy.
Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. Print
"Sir Arthur Sullivan." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/572930/Sir-Arthur-Sullivan
Williams, Carolyn. Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody. New
York: Columbia University Press, 2011. Print.