This mosque survived the bombing of Kobe in 1945, and a major earthquake in 1995. It is the Kobe Mosque, in Japan, widely called the country's first.
Indian, Turkish and Tatar Muslims, many of them traders, lived in the port city of Kobe. Around 1928, they began raising money for a mosque.
It was completed in 1935 with donations from the community. Its architect was a Czech who worked in Japan and also designed churches. Built of reinforced concrete by the Takenaka company, it has a dome, two minarets, and three floors above ground. Sources describe its style as Turkish, Indian, or a mix of both.
In 1943, the Imperial Japanese Navy took it over. In 1945, air raids devastated the area around it, yet the mosque, with its strong concrete frame and basement, stayed standing. Reportedly, little more than its windows broke.
In 1995, the Great Hanshin earthquake struck Kobe. The mosque stood, though accounts differ on how much damage it took, and it sheltered families who had lost their homes.
Mosques opened in Nagoya in 1936 and in Tokyo in 1938. Nagoya's burned down in 1945, and Tokyo's was demolished in 1986. Kobe's is the only one of the three still standing in its original building.
Today it is still an active mosque that welcomes visitors.
The Kobe Mosque's construction, initiated by the Islamic Committee of Kobe in 1928, overcame financial and logistical hurdles. However, it was confiscated by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1943 during World War II but survived the 1945 air raids largely unscathed. The mosque was damaged during the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 but did not completely collapse. Due to its endurance, it has also been called the "Miracle Mosque."
Architecture and design
Constructed in 1935 by the Takenaka Corporation, the mosque has a reinforced concrete structure. Its architectural style is a fusion of traditional Asian-Turkish influences and was designed by architect Jan Josef Švagr.
Located at 2 Nakayamate Douri, Chuo-Ku, the mosque spans three levels above ground and one underground level. Its roofing comprises a combination of flat roofs and domes with wooden structures and copper roofing. The walls are finished with exposed-aggregate.
The History, Architecture and later sections are adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kobe Mosque”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article. Text has been shortened.
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