Japan’s Oldest Mosque

April 11th 2024
-Explore the data-



Built in 1935, the Kobe Muslim Mosque is the oldest mosque in Japan. Its stone construction in a ‘modern Moorish’ style incorporates elements reminiscent of mosques built in many parts of Muslim Asia during the early twentieth century. Designed by the Czech architect Jan Josef Švagr, it features a prominent dome surrounded with two square minarets on the facade and two round minarets at the rear of the building. The building contains three floors and a basement, all of which provide prayer space, with the main prayer hall on the first floor featuring a marble mihrab and minbar. The second floor gallery used as a prayer space for women overlooks the main prayer hall through three pointed arches with short balconies.


On the invitation of the Kobe Muslim Mosque Committee, and in collaboration with the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University, the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS) undertook a systematic documentation of the building, including data capture via terrestrial LiDAR as well as both terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry. At the same time, the MAHS Team also digitized manuscript material related to the history of the mosque, all of which is currently being processed to be made open access available at the MAHS online archive.


The mosque is maintained in excellent condition and frequented by Muslims for the five daily prayers. It is also open every day to foreign visitors and non-Muslim Japanese tourists from 10:00-18:00.


The Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS) is funded by Arcadia and based at Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) under the direction of Professor R. Michael Feener.
See other models from the MAHS here