Arab News Japan

Built in 1935, the oldest mosque in Japan, Kobe Mosque, joins the rest of the world in Ramadan worship as the holy month begins.

The three-story mosque in Nakayamate Dori in Chuo-ku, Kobe, was designed by Czech architect Jan Josef Svagr. It has a central prayer hall on the ground floor, as well as a white marble mihrab and minbar.

An Islamic Culture Center in the building also offers study sessions and general information about Islam. According to a 1936 Kobe Mosque report, the building was opened by Ferozuddin on Friday Aug. 2, 1935, before “a large gathering of Muslim ladies and gentlemen coming from many lands.”

On the afternoon of Oct. 11, 1935, “about 600 guests responded to our invitation to see the mosque building.  Later in the evening of the same day they gathered in the Tor Hotel, where a great reception was held.”

Ginjiro Katsuda, Kobe’s mayor at the time, shared a message that was printed in the same report.

“As mayor of Kobe, I have much pleasure in extending to the Kobe Muslim Mosque Committee my hearty congratulations on the occasion of the opening of the mosque. It is the first Muslim mosque built in Japan, and Kobe may well be proud of it. The appearance of the new mosque is quite befitting such a cosmopolitan city as Kobe,” he said.

“The new mosque affords a place of worship for Muslim people not only in Kobe, but for those living in other places of Japan.”

Katsuda added that “it is my earnest wish that this new place of worship will prove to be another strong link in the chain of Muslim-Japanese friendship.”

The 89-year-old mosque gained further recognition by surviving both the Second World War and the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake unscathed.