Tokyo’s best-known mosque was built twice, once by refugees in 1938, and again in the year 2000.
This is Tokyo Camii, in the Shibuya district. Camii is the Turkish word for mosque.
The first mosque opened on the twelfth of May, 1938, beside a Turkish school. It was built by Tatar and Bashkir Muslims who had fled Russia after the revolution, under the direction of Abdurreshid Ibrahim.
It served Muslims in Japan for about half a century. By 1986, the building had decayed so badly that it was demolished.
The Tokyo Turk Association gave the land to Turkey, and a new mosque was built under the direction and support of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs.
The architect was Hilmi Senalp. Work began in 1998, and about a hundred engineers and craftsmen came from Turkey.
It opened on the thirtieth of June, 2000, in the classical Ottoman style, with a central dome, half-domes, and a slender minaret about forty-one metres high.
Inside, white marble, gold detail, stained glass and low chandeliers are set against turquoise and white.
According to the mosque, its domes were cast without moulds, and the marble was fixed without mortar.
The main prayer area holds about six hundred and thirty people, and up to two thousand when other halls are opened.
It is often called the largest mosque in Japan.
Sources differ on its floor area.
