Hana Shimozumi (October 22, 1893 — July 12, 1978), sometimes written as Hannah Shimozumi, and later Hana Shimozumi Iki, was an American singer, billed as "the Japanese Nightingale", best known for playing Yum Yum in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado in 1919.
Early life Hana Shimozumi was born in Honolulu, Hawaii."Japanese Girl Born Here Winning Fame as Mainland Vocalist" Honolulu Star Bulletin (September 4, 1918): 2. via Newspapers.com She was raised by adoptive parents in San Francisco, California.Vella Winner, "Japanese Has American Tastes" Oregon Daily Journal (September 1, 1920): 10. via Newspapers.com
Career Hana Shimozumi was billed as "the Japanese Nightingale"."Auditorium Concert Sunday Evening" Municipal Record (March 20, 1919): 91. She first gained wider attention when she sang an aria from Madame Butterfly at a movie house in San Francisco in 1918; her performance was called "a real novelty" by one report, which went on to explain that Shimozumi was "like a little Japanese doll"."Music at San Francisco" Musical Leader (September 5, 1918): 218. The New York Times also called her 1919 performance as Yum Yum in The Mikado with the Gallo English Opera Company a "novelty"."'The Mikado' with Novelty; Little Hana Shimozumi, Japanese, Wins a Triumph as Yum Yum" New York Times (September 9, 1919): 15. She was said to be the first woman of Japanese ancestry to play the role."Mme. Hana Shimozumi Iki" Radio Digest Illustrated (February 1928): 17."News and Views of Women" Monroe News-Star (February 15, 1927): 3. via Newspapers.com Another reviewer went beyond the novelty, to describer her voice as "a pure, sweet, light, flexible soprano", further noting that "she is also a vivacious and intelligent actress.""The Mikado" The Argonaut (March 27, 1920): 202.
After she married, Shimozumi Iki left the light opera stage "temporarily", but continued to perform on radio, and in revues, through the 1920s.Advertisement for "Japa-Knees" revue, Daily Capital Journal (May 26, 1928): 2. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Hana Shimozumi married George S. Iki, a surgeon. They had a daughter, Marsha, born in 1922, and lived in Sacramento, California and later in Los Angeles, California."Dr. George Iki Joins Inter-Racial Clinic in Los Angeles" The Colorado Times (July 7, 1945): 1. During World War II, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, Hana Shimozumi Iki was interned, with her family, at Tule Lake Relocation Center. She had visited Japan only once as a child, and did not speak, read, or write Japanese."Yum Yum Does Not Speak Japanese" Boston Post (November 26, 1920): 15. via Newspapers.com Hannah Shimozumi Iki died in 1978, aged 84 years.
References
External links A photograph of Hana Shimozumi from the 1910s, in the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress. An oral history interview with Hana Shimozumi's daughter, Marsha Iki, conducted in 1979, in the Issei Oral History Project, Center for Sacramento History.