12/07/2022
The first Japanese to go on the Hajj was Kotaro
Yamaoka. He converted to Islam, after coming into
contact with Russian-born writer, Abdürresid
Ibrahim, whereupon he took the name Omar
Yamaoka.
Japan's first mosque was built in 1935. According
to japanfocus.org, 'There are currently between 30
and 40 single-story mosques in Japan, plus
another 100 or more apartment rooms set aside, in
the absence of more suitable facilities, for prayers.
Historian Caeser E. Farah documented that in 1909 the Russian-born Ayaz İshaki and writer Abdurreshid Ibrahim (1857–1944), were the first Muslims who successfully converted the first ethnic Japanese, when Kotaro Yamaoka converted in 1909 in Bombay after contacting Ibrahim and took the name Omar Yamaoka.[10] Yamaoka became the first Japanese to go on the Hajj. Yamaoka and Ibrahim were traveling with the support of nationalistic Japanese groups like Black Dragon Society (Kokuryūkai). Yamaoka in fact had been with the intelligence service in Manchuria since the Russo-Japanese war. His official reason for traveling was to seek the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph's approval for building a mosque in Tokyo. This approval was granted in 1910. The Tokyo Mosque, was finally completed on 12 May 1938, with generous financial support from the zaibatsu. Its first imams were Abdul-Rashid Ibrahim and Abdülhay Kurban Ali (Muhammed-Gabdulkhay Kurbangaliev) (1889–1972). However, Japan’s first mosque, the Kobe Mosque was built in 1935, with the support of the Turko-Tatar community of traders there.[11] On 12 May 1938, a Mosque was dedicated in Tokyo.[12] Another early Japanese convert was Bunpachiro Ariga, who about the same time as Yamaoka went to India for trading purposes and converted to Islam under the influence of local Muslims there, and subsequently took the name Ahmed Ariga. Yamada Toajiro was for almost 20 years from 1892 the only resident Japanese trader in Constantinople.[13] During this time he served unofficially as consul. He converted to Islam, and took the name Abdul Khalil, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca on his way home.