Building bridges with Islam at Tokyo Camii

With hoodies and scarves covering their heads, a group of Japanese high school students point and whisper in awe upon entering the main hall of Tokyo Camii as Muslim worshippers prostrate beneath a glittering dome set against a bright sky.

Call to prayer: Tokyo Camii and Turkish Cultural Center is the Japanese capital's largest mosque and can hold up to 1,200 people at a time. | KENDREA LIEW

Located just five minutes from Yoyogi-Uehara Station in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, Tokyo Camii welcomes hundreds of visitors weekly as Japan’s largest congregational mosque. The spectacular Ottoman-styled building can hold up to 1,200 people at a time and includes a Turkish cultural center for social gatherings.

Although there are more than 80 mosques in Japan (with 10 based in Tokyo), Islamic culture remains rather unfamiliar to many people in Japan. Furthermore, as in other countries, Islam tends to get a lot of negative press due to problems with extremist groups and religious fundamentalists. Despite this, Tokyo Camii spokesperson Shigeru Shimoyama says he has noticed a growing curiosity about Islam thanks to the influx of tourists from Muslim countries visiting and, sometimes, moving here.

Fount of knowledge: Shigeru Shimoyama converted to Islam and gives tours to Japanese students at Tokyo Camii mosque. | KENDREA LIEW

As a Japanese convert to Islam, Shimoyama says that he once saw Islam as a religion of violence until he experienced the warmth and hospitality of Sudanese Muslims firsthand on an overseas trip in 1967.

“The unknown is dangerous,” says Shimoyama, who now dedicates his life to raising awareness about Islam. “It leads to prejudice and then discrimination.”

Besides holding free tours in Japanese on the weekends, Shimoyama actively collaborates with media representatives and academics looking to feature the mosque and Islamic culture in their work.

For Muhammad Ghufron Yazid, who helps to run the Tokyo Camii Young Muslim Club, social media has been crucial for building a warmer climate of acceptance and understanding of Islamic culture.

“When people think about Islam, the first thing they think about is how we cannot eat pork or drink alcohol. So they don’t know (much) about our lifestyle or beliefs,” he says.

By promoting activities centered around art and conversation, Yazid hopes to help Islam maintain its relevance to young people, and he does this with his @youngmuslimtokyo Instagram account and olivejapan.org website.

“I want to show that being Muslim is not unfashionable,” he says.

Mine Candas, who works at the mosque, explains that, just like Islam, “every school has its good and bad students … just like how there are good and bad Muslims.”

“I want people to know the real Islam,” Candas says, highlighting how the faith emphasizes values such as kindness and consideration toward others.

Islam came to Japan proper at a relatively late point in history, when the first mosques were built by Tartarian refugees fleeing the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century.

Tokyo Camii, which was established in 1938, served as a sanctuary for the Turkish community at that time. Turkish mosques are characterized by a central dome representing the unfolding expanse of Allah’s (God’s) universe. The roof, which symbolizes the “vault of heaven,” is often engraved with the holy names of Allah and his prophets.

Given religious restrictions on idolatry, mosques are inscribed with flowing Arabic calligraphy based on Quranic verses and geometric motifs that unfold in an endless repetition called the “arabesque.” Its flexible, interwoven patterns can be multiplied on any scale, symbolizing the creator’s abstract and infinite nature.

Intricate designs: Tokyo Camii is decorated with Arabic calligraphy and geometric motifs. | KENDREA LIEW

Most of the two-story mosque’s materials were sourced from Turkey and it took more than 100 Turkish craftsmen to finish building it in a year. As the original building aged over time, it was demolished in 1986 and its new structure was completed by 2000. Despite its Turkish roots, today Tokyo Camii’s congregation comprises Muslims primarily from Indonesia and other South Asian nations.

Yazid, who was raised in Japan in a Muslim Indonesian family, relates a common encounter, “If I say I’m Muslim, they will be like, “You’re not Japanese?”

“When they hear ‘Islam’, it’s not something related to Japan (or to them),” he adds.

“Japan is changing,” says Shimoyama. The seed of Islam has just started … so it is a very important time for Japanese people and Muslims to (get to) know each other.”

Etiquette for visits
Tokyo Camii is open daily from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. and welcomes visitors of all faiths. As a form of courtesy, visitors should dress modestly and abstain from any loud conversations while in the mosque. Women will also need to cover their hair by wearing headscarves, which can be borrowed at the entrance of the main prayer hall.

Finally, visitors should refrain from blocking the paths of worshippers while they are praying, so as to avoid interrupting their connection with Allah.

(Source: JT)

Tokyo Camii: Japan’s biggest mosque

There are around 80 mosques in Japan, many of them relatively small. The country’s biggest place of Islamic worship is Tokyo Camii, which has space for around 1,200 worshipers. Nippon.com has a wonderful article with some great pictures of this this magnificent Ottoman-style mosque in the heart of the Japanese capital. Read on: 

In the heart of a quiet residential area in Yoyogi Uehara, just a short distance from the bustling city-center hotspots of Shinjuku and Harajuku, is a building whose towering minaret and impressive dome make it stand out from the surrounding architecture.

The minaret of Tokyo Camii against the backdrop of the Shinjuku skyline (right). From this arched balcony (left), the muezzin makes the call to prayer (“azan”). (Photo on the right courtesy of Tokyo Camii.)

This is Tokyo Camii, the largest mosque in Japan, built in impressive Ottoman style. The English word “mosque” and its cognates in other European languages derive ultimately from the Arabic masjid, meaning “place where one bows one’s head.” Mosques can be found throughout Japan’s major cities—a fact that in itself is likely to come as a surprise to most Japanese people, who remain largely unaware of these pockets of Islamic culture thriving in their midst.

Camii is a Turkish word derived from the Arabic jami, and refers to a central “congregational mosque”—a major mosque where people gather for Friday prayers, the most important of the week. Tokyo Camii, the largest mosque in Japan, is architecturally similar to the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Apart from water, concrete, and steel, all the building materials and furnishings used in the mosque were brought from Turkey. Around a hundred Turkish artisans worked for a year to build the second-story mosque itself and the cultural center downstairs. The building itself is a work of art.

In the morning and early afternoon, the sunlight comes streaming through the stained glass windows, enveloping the interior of the mosque in an atmospheric light. Because of strict prohibitions against idolatry, the mosque depends on Arabic calligraphy and geometric designs for its interior decoration. The dome represents the wide expanse of God’s created universe.

A verse from the Koran in Arabic calligraphy.

In many Turkish-style mosques, the roof of the dome is inscribed with Arabic calligraphy depicting the names of God (Allah), the Prophet Muhammad, and his four successors.

According to Islamic tradition, there are 99 names for God. These include “Al-Muhyi” (The Giver of Life); “Al-Khaliq” (The Creator), and “Ar-Rahman” (The Exceedingly Compassionate). The holy “most beautiful names” of God are written in beautifully flowing Arabic calligraphy on the walls of the mosque. In front of this is the minbar, the pulpit from which the imam delivers his sermon to the faithful during Friday prayers.

Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day. The most important prayers take place early on Friday afternoon, when large numbers of people attend the mosque. The faithful prostrate themselves in the direction of Mecca. The Muslim style of prayer, with everyone on the same level, symbolizes that all people are equal in the eyes of God, regardless of race or social status. Women pray in a separate section of the mosque.

The Russian Revolution and Japan’s First Mosque
The roots of Tokyo Camii are in Central Asia.

Nurullah Ayaz, imam of the Tokyo Camii mosque, came to Japan in summer 2012,
after studying Japanese for five years at university in Turkey.
He emphasizes the “many points in common between the
Japanese national character and the conduct expected of a Muslim.”

“Unfortunately, for much of Japanese history there was no direct contact with the Islamic world,” says Nurullah Ayaz, the imam at Tokyo Camii.

“It was only in the twentieth century that a Muslim community first established itself in Japan. The first mosque in Tokyo was built by Tartars who came to Japan as refugees after the Russian Revolution in 1917. They were a Turkic group originally from Central Asia, who came to Japan via Siberia and China. As Muslims, the first thing they wanted to do in Japan was to build a school for their children and to establish a mosque where the community could pray. These Muslims received permission from the Japanese government in 1928, and the school opened in 1935. The first mosque was completed three years later, in 1938.”

(Left) The school in Tokyo for Muslim children, which opened in 1935. There are plans to demolish the school, which is starting to show its age, and build a new Turkish culture center on the site. (Right) The original Tokyo mosque, built in 1938—the precursor to today’s Tokyo Camii. The original mosque was demolished in 1986, and the current structure was completed in 2000.

Islam and Japan: Closer Than You Think
Friday prayers at Tokyo Camii are well attended by a growing congregation, most of them foreign-born. With the recent increase in the number of Muslims from Southeast Asia in particular, the Friday sermon is now given in Turkish, Japanese, and English rather than Arabic.

Despite a widespread image in Japan of Islam as a “desert religion” with its roots in the culture of Arabia and the Middle East, Egypt is the only Arabic-speaking country among the world’s five most populous Muslim countries, ranking fifth—behind Indonesia (250 million), Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, in that order. In this sense, it would be no exaggeration to say that Islam is already on Japan’s doorstep.

Imam Nurullah says he wants Japanese people to feel comfortable and welcome in the country’s mosques.

“We try to give visitors a simple explanation about Islam. We give them a quick run-down on the etiquette when visiting a mosque. For example, women cover their head with a scarf (called a hijab) before they enter the mosque. We have head cloths available at the entrance for people to cover their hair and any exposed skin. Men cannot enter the mosque in short trousers that expose the legs. And people should refrain from conversation while prayers are in progress. Photography is not allowed without special permission. Otherwise, there aren’t really any rules that people need to worry about.”
One courtesy that Nurullah does want people to follow is to respect people at prayer by not cutting across in front of them. “The idea is that there should be nothing between you and Allah when you are praying. Cutting across people is tantamount to breaking that connection between the worshiper and Allah.”

The reception room on the first floor, near the entrance to Tokyo Camii, is similar to the interior of a Turkish home. The central fountain and impressive tulip-motif tiled fireplace are typically Turkish.

The multi-purpose hall on the first floor, where lectures on Islam are held, along with various events and parties.

Muslims wash their face, hands, and feet in these ablution areas to purify themselves before prayer.

Met at Tokyo Camii
We talked to several visitors to the mosque.

Aromatherapist Okabe Yoshiko (left) says she has wanted to visit the mosque for some time, since she often passes it on her walks around the neighborhood. For some reason people often speak to her on their way out of the mosque, and today she decided to stop in and have a look around.

“Unfortunately, today’s Japan is cut off from the universe. Coming to a sacred place like a mosque steadies the spirit. Your heart becomes calm and at one with the universe.”

Nasser from France (center) was visiting Japan from Dubai, where he now works. “I found out about Tokyo Camii on the Internet. As well as Tokyo, I’ve also visited Kyoto and Hiroshima. Everywhere’s been great. I was especially moved by the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. I think Japan is a particularly spiritual country. People are kind and respectful of the values of others; everything feels very natural.”

Sagawa Nobuko (right) is an Arabic calligrapher. She was struck as a young girl by the calligraphy on the flag of Saudi Arabia, and resolved to study Arabic calligraphy.

This group of students from Atomi University was visiting the mosque as part of a cultural studies program. “Islam is a religion where God has no form, and there’s nothing like the Buddhist images one sees in a Japanese temple,” one student said. “It’s a religion where there is direct dialogue between the individual and God. That’s one of the things that really made an impression on me during my visit today.”