The Mikado of the title character as a disrespectful representation of the revered Meiji Emperor; Japanese theatre was prohibited from depicting the emperor on stage. Japanese Prince Komatsu Akihito, who saw an 1886 production in London, took no offence. When Prince Fushimi Sadanaru made a state visit in 1907, the British government banned performances of "The Mikado" from London for six weeks, fearing that the play might offend him – a manoeuvre that backfired when the prince complained that he had hoped to see "The Mikado" during his stay. A Japanese journalist covering the prince's stay attended a proscribed performance and confessed
The Mikado production was released in July 1907 by the Walturdaw Company and starred George Thorne as Ko-Ko. Both of these programs used the Cinematophone sound-on-disc system of phonograph recordings (Phonoscène) of the performers played back along with the silent footage of the performance. In 1926, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company made a brief promotional film of excerpts from "The Mikado". Some of the most famous Savoyards are seen in this film, including Darrell Fancourt as The Mikado, Henry Lytton as Ko-Ko, Leo Sheffield as Pooh-Bah, Elsie Griffin as Yum-Yum, and Bertha Lewis as Katisha. In 1939, Universal Pictures released a ninety-minute