Islam in Japan and Turks

[Aziz]

Today I recieved an e-mail from my sister about Tokyo Mosque or "Tokyo Camii in Turkish".
The first sentence was "this mosque was rebuilt by Turkish government after it was demolished in 1986. It was originally built by Muslims who escaped from the Bolshevik authorities." and the first thing I thought about that they must be central asian Turks. So I searched through the internet and I found this:

The real Muslim community life however did not start until the arrival of several hundred Turkoman, Uzbek, Tajik, Kirghiz, Kazakh and other Turko-Tatar Muslim refugees from central Asia and Russia in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution during World War I. These Muslims who were given asylum in Japan settled in several main cities around Japan and formed small Muslim communities. A number of Japanese converted to Islam through the contact with these Muslims.

With the formation of these small Muslim communities several mosques have been built, the most important of them being the Kobe Mosque built in 1935 and the Tokyo Mosque built in 1938 (completely rennovated in 1990s). One thing that should be emphasized is that very little weight of Japanese Muslims was felt in building these mosques and there have been no Japanese so far who played the role of Imam of any of the mosques.

source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Japan)

I felt very proud of our fellows, and I said: these are the grandchildren of Imam Buxari and Imam Muslim and so many scholars.

here are some picture of the new tokyo mosque
http://islam3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benri/tm08b.jpg
http://islam3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benri/tm06b.jpg
http://www.levha.net/tokyomosque/exterior/camii026.jpg
http://www.levha.net/tokyomosque/interior/camii011.jpg
http://www.levha.net/tokyomosque/interior/camii004.jpg
http://www.tokyocamii.org/photo/image/img019.jpg
http://islam3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benri/tm03b.jpg
http://islam3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benri/tm02b.jpg
http://islam3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benri/tm24b.jpg
http://islam3.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benri/tm16b.jpg

[Kaptan-i Derya]

Nice Ottoman architecture, thanks for sharing it.

Btw Islam in Japan began with Ottoman - Japan relations in begin 20th century, search for the sunken Ertughrul ship, what it whas about :)

i have a link about but its in Turkish:
http://www.aksiyon.com.tr/detay.php?id=11517

something found in English :
COMMEMORATION CEREMONY HELD IN KUSHIMOTO ON 110TH
ANNIVERSARY OF SEA ACCIDENT WHERE 534 TURKISH SAILORS DIED
KUSHIMOTO - A commemoration ceremony was held on Saturday in the Japanese city of Kushimoto for Ertugrul Ship which was sent by Abdulhamit the Second to Japanese Emperor Tenno Miji in 1890 and later sunk on its way back from Japan.

Ertugrul Ship which was under the command of Admiral Osman Pasa paid a visit of courtesy to Emporor Meiji and stayed there for three months in 1890. After departing from Yokahoma Port on September 15, 1890, the ship got caught in a big storm and its compass was broken. The ship sank after hitting the rocks. A total of 534 sailors including Osman Pasa died in the accident while 68 sailors were rescued by Japanese people.

On Saturday, on the 110th anniversary of the accident, a ceremony was held at Turgutreis Frigate which came to Kushimoto. The frigate later went to the spot where the ship had sunk.

Speaking at the ceremony, Rear-Admiral Omer Esenturk said this sad incident brought the two countries closer.

Turkish and Japanese authorities including Prince Mikasa and Turkish Ambassador to Tokyo Yaman Baskut laid flowers on the sea.

A second ceremony was held at a monument constructed specially for the sailors who lost their lives in the accident. Turkish and Japanese authorities spoke at the ceremony.

Turgutreis Frigate will leave for Tokyo Port on Sunday. Here, the ship will open to Japanese visitors. There will be a reception at Turgutreis on June 8.

and finally good source for it;
http://www.turkey.jp/english/ertugrulfrigate.htm

[Aziz]

Yes it was by Ottoman empire but there was only individual Muslims. The begining of formation of muslim community in Japan was established after the migration of central asian turks.