• when an exhibition of Japanese objects in Paris influenced a number of painters and interior designers

  These objects were vases, jars, screens, and fans mentioned by Gilbert. British and American art critics in popular magazines reiterated a notion that, while Japanese artists were capable of great sophistication in decorating practical and domestic objects, but not of creating art itself. Even the article on Japan in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica repeated this idea. (The 9th edition was published from 1875-1889.)

• since Japan's increasingly important impact upon western countries after Commodore Perry's visit in the 1850s

  A photographer was present on his ship, and his photographs were influential.

• after Japan's opening in the late 1860s

  1867 is the beginning of the Meiji Era in Japan.

• the Crystal Palace

• 1860s in Paris

• 1870s? in London

• the Japanese village set up in Knightsbridge

• general love of exoticism

• conflation of Japanese and Chinese cultures and design

• 1870s? in London

• and fusion of east and west in The Mikado and the Willow pattern of china

To the libretto of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

To the homepage of this Mikado website.

Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.