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"Seventy Suffering Samurais!"
—Mitsuhirato (pg. 23)[src]

Mitsuhirato (ミツヒラト, Mitsuhirato) was a sadistic Japanese double agent who poses a major threat to Tintin. Under the cover of being a clothing store manager, he operates an opium den called the Blue Lotus and is a spy for the Japanese government. He exclusively appears in The Blue Lotus.

Appearance[]

Mitsuhirato is a tall, scrawny man aged somewhere in his late 40s to early 50s. He has round glasses, a bushy mustache, and slicked-back short hair. Most notably, he is drawn with prominent front teeth and a pig-like nose. Mitsuhirato is usually seen wearing three piece formal suits.

Story[]

Mitsuhirato owned a women's clothing shop on Street of Tranquility in the city of Shanghai. However, Mitsuhirato was actually a spy for the Japanese government, and helped oversee Japan's occupation of mainland China. He has direct contact to an unnamed high ranking Imperial Japanese official (only referred as "excellency") from the Ministry of War. He was also a major player in Shanghai's opium trade, and his lead supplier was Roberto Rastapopoulos and the Kih-Oskh Brotherhood. He suppresses witnesses through unethical use of the Rajaijah Juice, a herbal serum known as the "poison of madness", which Didi briefly falls victim to.

Under the cover of night, Mitsuhirato and his associates detonate a bomb on mainline railroad tracks. This is a direct reference to the Mukden Incident that sparked the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, and escalated the state of undeclared war between the Japanese and Chinese governments. Tintin witnesses this staged bombing, and Mitsuhiraro attempts to have Tintin poisoned with the Rajaijah to keep him from going to the authorities. When this fails, Mitsuhirato attempts to bribe Tintin into becoming a spy for the Japanese government, but Tintin outright refuses.

Mitsuhirato's brutality is especially prominent in his attempt to have the Wang family and Tintin executed. The still-mad Didi is set up to behead his own mother and father, after which Yamato is set to shoot Didi dead. Fortunately, this scheme is foiled by Chang and Thompson and Thomson.

Historical context[]

Mitsuhirato is, along with the other Japanese principal characters, characterized as an evil, scheming person, exploiting China's political turmoil to his and his country's advantage. This characterization is likely influenced by Japan's actions in China around the time when Herge and Zhang Chongren were working on The Blue Lotus.

Death[]

At the end of The Blue Lotus, Wang Chen-Yee and Tintin find a newspaper report that claims Mitsuhirato has committed suicide through hara-kiri, a ritualistic disembowelling performed by disgraced samurai. In the animated series adaptation, Mitsuhirato's death is not announced, implying he may still be alive in this canon.

However, in the original newsprint version of The Blue Lotus, Mitsuhirato does not die in prison. In the mid-1940s, Herge's publisher Casterman required him to reduce down the page length, so he trimmed down the newspaper segment at the end of the story. In this original version, a Shanghai Journal newspaper column declares Rastapopoulos and Mitsuhirato had fled China. They were wanted in 17 countries, and China was expecting the Japanese government to extradite Mitsuhirato for an upcoming trial.[1]

Name[]

Mitsuhirato

Mitsuhirato as seen in the book series

While Hergé often named his original characters and places with puns, it is not clear what sort of pun Mitsuhirato is supposed to be, if any. Mitsuhiro (which may have several different spellings in kanji, but the first radical is usually "光") is a reasonably common Japanese male given name. Mitsuhirato might merely be intended to sound like an elaborate Japanese name, similar to the famous group of companies Mitsubishi (三菱, "three diamonds," literally "three water chestnuts"). Mitsuhirato could also be interpreted to mean "three flat doors" (三平戸). In the Japanese version, Mitsuhirato's name is written "ミツヒラト" in the katakana script used for foreign words and names, reflecting his non-traditional name.

References[]

  1. "Mitsuhirato", Figurines Tintin: La Collection Officielle. Page 16. Editions Moulinsart, Brussels. 2009.
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