100 Years of Tatar-Japan Historical and Cultural Ties.
On the Issue of the History and Cultural Life of Tatars in Japan
50th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Kazan 2007
The first Tatars appeared in Japan as prisoners of war after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). After the war, some Tatars with for different reasons decided to stay in Japan. However, the official acquaintance of the Japanese people with Tatar culture was not until after a lapse of several years. The spread of Tatar/Muslim culture in Japan is owed to Ibragim Khzrat Abdarashit, who was a Russian Muslim intellectual activist.
Muslim activist, I. Kh. Abdarashit had arrived in Japan in September 1908 and preached Muslim religion and culture during his stay. His visit was the prelude to the future historic and cultural relationship between the Turkic-Tatar and the Japanese people. There were some Japanese people with an interest to study Islamic religion with I. Kh. Abdrashit. Some serious Japanese pupils were converted and became Muslim with genuine sympathy for the Islamic teachings of Abdrashit. They even made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Abdarashit with his dedicated mission had a significant effect on his followers during his stay in Japan.
Ten years later, in connection with after the Russian revolution of 1917 and the Civil War began, mass numbers of Kazan Tatar Muslims immigrated to the Far East, Manchuria, and finally into Japan. The stream of immigration of Tatars continued for several decades. In the nineteen twenties 400-500 Muslims lived in Japan. From year to year the number of Muslims in Japan increased and in the nineteen thirties 5,000- 6,000 Muslims lived in Japan.
Muslims live in such Japanese cities as, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, and Kawaksaki. In every place they organized their community which was called “Islamic Makhallya”. Living among the Japanese, most Turko-Tatars made a living as traveling tradesman. They peddled fabric for European clothes which were uncommon for Japanese in those times.
We can find the archives on the life style and occupations of Kazan Tatars, (later we called them Turko-Tatars) descended from Kazan, at the Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the archives are titled: “The life style and occupation”.
For retaining their culture and peacefully living in Japanese society, the Tatars established various organizations. These included makhallya, mosques and cultural centers.
I. Kh. Abdarashit was the first chairman of the spiritual administration of Muslims in Japan. Among them, the most active and largest spiritual administration was “Islamiya Tokyo” which was established in 1924.
In 1927 during the Sacrifice Fest (Kurban Bayrami), they decided to open Islamic schools and began teaching at their elementary schools according to the programs both of the Muslim and national program.
In 1937 Madrasa, “Islamiya” at Tokyo was included in the list of Japanese public schools. They used textbooks, which were written in the Tatar language.
The first mosque in Japan was built by efforts of Turko-Tatars. The construction of the building of a mosque started in Tokyo, in 1928. However, the first mosque appeared in Kobe, not in Tokyo, in August 1935. The Tokyo mosque was opened in 1938, after the construction of mosques in Kobe and Nagoya, and during the first World Congress of the followers of Islam. At the present time there are several dozen mosques in Japan.
During World War II Turko-Tatars had stayed in Japan and shared their fate with the Japanese citizens. After the war the majority of them obtained Turkish citizenship and left Japan. But there were many Tatars, who decided to acquire Japanese or Soviet citizenship.
Of the Tatars, who acquired Japanese citizenship, some of them married Japanese girls. They keep their culture and live among local Japanese people.
In this paper I attempted to describe on the history and life of Turko-Tatar immigrants in Japan and the influence of Turko-Tatars on Japanese society and their contribution. Little is known to whom, that Japan here already almost 100 years there are a Tatar diaspore and the culture, and that we also together share history. Few people know that Japan has had for almost one hundred years a Tatar diaspora, culture, and a shared history. I hope that this report will contribute to the more fruitful development of Tatar-Japanese relations.