Interesting that the Mikado should pop up in recent discussions. The steam
locomotive Mikado 2-8-2 was originally
named in 1897 after a group was built for Nippon Railway of
Japan. The name means "Emperor of Japan" and the 1885 opening of Gilbert &
Sullivan's opera "The Mikado" brought the
name into use. During W.W.II, several railroads tried to rename them as
MacArthurs. However the Mikado name stuck.
I remember hearing a Japanese opera company perform Gilbert & Sullivan's show
in the early `70's when I was a kid. As
such, I distinctly recall that they pronounced it as [mih-KI'-doh], with the
hard "I" rather than a soft 'a'. It
stuck with me and I still pronounce it that way. I figured that they should
know better than anybody how to pronounce
the name of their own emperor better than anybody.
jsteamernubes@aol.com wrote:
> The Mikado, of course, was/is a famous Gilbert and Sullivan operetta of that
> period.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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