Tatars in Japan: Koran in hieroglyphs, airport management and role in Godzilla

Japanese Koran in a Kazan museum

The first printed Koran, which was published in Japan, officially moved in the Museum of Islamic Culture of Kul Sharif Mosque. A so-called Tokyo reprint appeared in 1934. It was published at the expense of Tatar communities in Tokyo, Saul and other cities and cost 2,000 yens, which was a fortune at that time. And technical achievements of that period allowed to print the first Japanese Koran based on photocopies of the famous Koran published in Kazan in 1913. In 1935, the Tatar community managed to build the first mosque in Japan. So, the Land of the Rising Sun acquainted with the Muslim culture for the first time through Tatar migrants, who came here after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

It is interesting that the Tokyo Koran was printed 82 years ago but its pages are as sound as a bell – neither the text nor the illustrations were damaged, and its gilt edges are still shining in the reflected rays of artificial light. It should be noted that traditionally only valuable editions had a gold plating. To tell the truth, it suffered damage – the edges of the black leather covering of the book started to break off. As the head of the Centre of History and Theory of National Education of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan Marat Gibatdinov told the journalists, a humid Japanese climate caused the defects. Now it needs an urgent conservation and restoration. According to the estimates of the director of the Museum of Islamic Culture Nuriya Garaeva, it will take at least one year, and only then citizens of Kazan will be able to see the Tokyo reprint personally.

According to her, the Japanese edition has an advantage over its modern reprints – it has both a more accurate text transmission and design. For this reason, it is close to a facsimile.

'The quality of the photocopy is amazing here, and it accurately reproduced the text written in the original version. The size, the quality of the print were reproduced without any additions unlike modern reprints of the beginning of the 19^th century that circulated in Kazan,' Nuriya Garaeva told. She also showed one of the modern editions of Koran whose pages were painted green and gleamed with a colourful decoration, which was not a characteristic of Kazan editions taken as a basis.

The Japanese edition has an advantage over its modern reprints – it has both a more accurate text transmission and design

Japanese Koran read to Finn children

The very ceremony of the pass of the relic started with a prayer spoken by the imam of Kul Sharif Mosque Hazrat Ilfar Khasanov: he wished Russia, Tatarstan and also the Tatars living abroad prosperity.

'Today we have been presented a reprint from a remote, as it may seem, Japan, but we are given a gift by the Tatars from Japan. Probably everybody who has seen the edition thought about the fate our people,' the director of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve Zilya Valeyeva stressed. She told that the Tokyo reprint was given by descendants of the Apanaevs merchant family that had been keeping it since 1940. Even the price of the book purchased by Akhmed Apanaev, who was help and translator of a Tatar writer Gayaz Iskhaki, from the Muslim Association of Great Japan is known – 10 yens.

Anver and Fuad Apanaevs gave the Tokyo reprint to the Museum of Islamic Culture. Anver was a famous entrepreneur, and Fuad headed Narita International Airport during many years and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport later. What is more, the brothers are famous for the organization of a businessmen club in Japan in the old days. Marat Gibatdinov had an opportunity to bring the Koran from Japan to Kazan. He shared his joy with the people who gathered there – he can be calm because he managed to fulfil a responsible assignment given by the Apanaev brothers. Gibatdinov told why the edition of the Japanese reprint of Koran and the construction of the first mosque in Japan was important for the Tatar community – it was a factual recognition of Islam in Japan. In particular, one of the copies of the edition was presented to the Emperor of Japan.

'The fact that this Koran is spread among Tatars in other countries too is also important. For instance, in China, Finland and Poland, the Tatars bought it and kept in their families. As people say, in some families, the Finnish Tatars bought a separate Tokyo Koran for each child,' Gibatdinov told and presented the museum albums brought from Japan that have illustrations of Gayaz Iskhaki.

Zilya Valeyeva told that the Tokyo reprint was given by descendants of the Apanaevs merchant family

Secrets of Tokyo Koran

As it is known, history is a science whose pages keep many secrets. It turned out that the first Japanese edition of Koran also had many mysteries. Larisa Usmanova, the head employee of the Academy of Science of the Republic of Tatarstan and a docent of Russian State University for the Humanities, told about them.

'To start with, the very presentation of this Koran was in Korea, not Japan. Now we are trying to find out why. Secondly, according to some data, representatives of the Emperor of Japan were present there. There is a note in Japanese in the Koran and in a letter of Kurbangaliev (the first leader of the Tatar community in Japan) that the edition was printed in 1938, though it is known that Koran was published in 1934.'

Larisa Usmanova told about the answers to the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya after the ceremony of the pass of the Japanese reprint of Koran to the Museum of Islamic Culture. According to her, there is a letter in the library of the Parliament of Tokyo in which Mukhammed Kurbangaliev asks Japan to receive Tatar migrants to be able to teach Arab and Turkic language on the Land of the Rising Sun. Moreover, he emphasizes in his letter that Turkic languages belong to Ural–Altaic family-languages as well as the Japanese language. As a result, Kurbangaliev managed to enter the territory of Japan and organize a Tatar community in 1924.

'As I understand, the Japanese actively supported them, if not, they simply would not be allowed. But anyway, in my view, taking account the fact that Gayaz Iskhaki went to Japan in 1933 to create a national community, it was possibly decided not to stress it, so Kurbangaliev was not allowed to organize the presentation in Japan, and the event took place in Korea.'

As for another mystery, Usmanova said that a possible additional printingis the reason for Kurbangaliev's words in a cover letter that the Koran was published in 1938, while all documents prove that the first Japanese reprint appeared in 1934.

Larisa Usmanova told about the mysteries of the Japanese reprint

The Yusupovs' descendants who took part in Godzilla

As for the life of the modern Tatar community in Japan, Usmanova told our newspaper that nowadays there are about 30 descendants of the first Tatar migrants on the Land of the Rising Sun. However, there was another migration wave in the 1990s, though it would not be correct to call them migrants – the majority of them are still citizens of Russia and come to work, study or find domestic bliss.

'We had a Day of the Tatar Culture in Japan in 2010. It was an attempt to gather people connected with Tatarstan and Tatar culture. About 15-10 people came. But you understand that they were wives of Japanese men,' Usmanova told about new Tatar migrants.

Speaking about the Turkic community, which formed in the 1930s, its members have a Turkish citizenship. And there were many people who became actors. For example, Safa's eldest son, the last imam of Kobe Mosque, – Abdulla Safin – took part in Japanese films and ads but was famous as Roye James and described himself as American. And a descendant of the Yusupovs, another famous merchant dynasty, event participated in episodes of the famous Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla.