Japan-UK relations in popular music began in 1854, when a military band which accompanied Rear Admiral Sir James Stirling played a medley of English airs in Nagasaki. This first introduction was followed in 1867 by shamisen music, performed by Japanese jugglers in London, which sounded dissonant and jarring to the English audience. However, the 1885 production of the comic opera The Mikado enthralled Londoners, containing at least one example of authentic Japanese music within the Gilbert and Sullivan score.
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