In 1909 Umar Yamaoka set out from Japan for Makkah to perform Hajj. He is the first Japanese whose pilgrimage is historically recognised, and his journey is an important chapter in the early history of Islam in Japan.
Yamaoka travelled with the Muslim scholar Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who had visited Japan and worked to strengthen its ties with the Muslim world. At the time Islam was unfamiliar to most of Japanese society. The pilgrimage gave Yamaoka a first-hand view of Muslim communities and their religious life beyond Japan.
Back in Japan in 1910, he wrote a Japanese-language book about his travels, published in 1912, describing the Arab lands and the holy places he visited and introducing Japanese readers to the religious heritage of the Muslim world. Japan's contacts with Muslim-majority countries were growing, and travellers, scholars and converts were sparking interest in Islam.
Yamaoka was not, however, the first Japanese to embrace Islam. Research based on Ottoman archives identifies the journalist Shotaro Noda as Japan's first Muslim. Noda went to the Ottoman capital Istanbul in 1891, studied Turkish, Ottoman history and Islam, and embraced Islam that year, taking the name Abdul Halim.
A study published in 2007 by researchers Nobuo Misawa and Göknur Akçadağ examined Ottoman Turkish documents and confirmed Noda's conversion from the historical record.
Noda's conversion dates from 1891 and Yamaoka's pilgrimage from 1909. Together their stories are regarded as important records of Islam's early growth in Japan and of the country's historical ties with the Muslim world.
Reported by Barta24's Islam desk.
Source: Barta24
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