Shunsuke Hayashi
Asian Resources Division, Kansai-kan

This article is a translation of the article in Japanese of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 582 (September 2009).

In Japan between two World Wars, there were many Tatars, Turkic-speaking Muslims from the Volga-Ural region of Russia, who came as refugees from the disorders after the Russian Revolution in 1917. In Japan at that period, there was a movement toward cooperation with Muslim countries around the world through the Tatars in Japan.

The photos from 1 to 4 are from the inaugural issue of Yapon mohbiri (literally means “Japan intelligencer”), the first magazine in Japan printed from Arabic script movable types, which was published in Tokyo by Tatars in April, 1931. This magazine is written in Tatar, the mother language of the Tatars. The purpose of the publication appears in the preface as follows, “to give information about Muslims who live in Japan and to pave the way to the friendship between Japan and Muslims” (Photo 2).

The Tokyo'da Mätbää-i İslamiyä (called “Mohammedan Printing Office in Tokyo” in English; “Tokyo Kaikyo Insatsusho 東京回教印刷所” in Japanese), which printed this magazine, was supported by an organization of Tatars in Japan named the Tokyo'da Mäxällä-i İslamiyä (“Tokyo Kaikyodan 東京回教団”; means “Muslim Neighborhood in Tokyo”) headed by Muhammed Gabdulhay Kurbangali who had fought for the White army (anti-Bolshevik forces) during the civil war after the Russian Revolution. Kurbangali came to Japan in 1924, organized the Tatars who lived in Tokyo and made a great effort for the construction of the Tokyo Mosque (“Tokyo Kaikyo Jiin 東京回教寺院”, the present-day Tokyo Camii & Turkish Culture Center in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo). As part of his activities, the Tokyo'da Mätbää-i İslamiyä was established to print in Arabic characters.

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Photo 5: The first Koran (Qur'an) printed and published in Japan by the Tokyo'da Mätbää-i İslamiyä in 1934 (NDL call no.: 196-139)
Such publications in Arabic were distributed to 33 countries to advertise Muslims’ activities in Japan to Muslim countries.

Behind Kurbangali’s vigorous activities in Japan, there was support from Japanese political, bureaucratic, military and journalistic circles. According to reminiscences of Saburo Shimano (a researcher responsible for Russian affairs in the East Asiatic Economic Investigation Bureau, South Manchuria Railways Co.) who was an advisor to Kurbangali, Kurbangali was assisted by many important figures: Ryozo Ioki, a journalist known as a nationalist; Mitsuru Toyama, a leader of “Ajia-shugi”—the nationalist movement relating to Pan-Asianism and expansionism in the first half of the 20th century; politicians such as Tsuyoshi Inukai, Takejiro Tokonami and Yosuke Matsuoka; and other influential persons. It seems that Kurbangali asserted that by supporting Muslims in the construction of mosques and Arabic-script printing presses, Japan could advertise overseas its deep understanding of Islam and achieve cooperation with Muslim countries.

The publication of Yapon mohbiri was probably planned with the support for Kurbangali and as a part of his publicity campaign.

People who sent words of congratulations to the inaugural issue include men of rank and great scholars such as Yoshio Sakatani, former Minister of Finance; anthropologist Ryuzo Torii; Gaishi Nagaoka, former Deputy Chief of the Army General Staff; and Mitsuru Toyama (Photo 3). Ryozo Ioki wrote an article about the friendship between Japan and Muslims. From the bureaucratic circles, it carried articles by the director of the International Trade Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the commissioner of the Japan Tourist Bureau (predecessor of the JTB Corp.). It seems that they seriously intended to achieve cooperation between Japan and Muslim countries through this magazine.

Printed copies of Yapon mohbiri were distributed to Muslims around the world. Unfortunately, however, it is doubtful whether the magazine achieved the expected favorable effect. Although the characters are the same, the languages of Muslims in the world, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, etc., are so diverse that they cannot communicate with each other. Tatar, which was used in this magazine, is a Turkic language, and it seems that the readers were limited to Turkic-speaking Muslims who lived around Turkey and Russia.

Although Yapon mohbiri was published until the 1940s, most of the Tatars left Japan after Word War II and very few Arabic-script publications printed by the Tatars remained in Japan. The National Diet Library holds only a single copy of Yapon mohbiri, which is the inaugural issue introduced in this article.

Yapon mohbiri, issue No. 1, April 1931, NDL call no.: Z51-A481 (This material is stored in the Kansai-kan. )

Reference:

• - Hisao Komatsu, Iburahimu Nihon e no tabi, Tosui shobo, 2008.
• - Akira Matsunaga, Zainichi Tataru jin, Toyo shobo, 2009.
• - Mantetsu-kai et al., Shimano Saburo, Hara shobo, 1984

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