Paper short abstract:

The aim of the presentation is to explore Tanaka Ippei’s first pilgrimage to Mecca, which he did in 1924 after converting to Islam in China. By studying his travelling diary and early essays we hope to enlighten both the history of pilgrimage itself and the evolution of his understanding of Islam.

Paper long abstract:

Tanaka Ippei (Nur Muhammad Tanaka Ippei, 田中逸平, 1882-1934) was one of the first Japanese Muslims and pioneers of Islamic studies in Japan who significantly impacted both the construction of Japanese reception of Islam and its actual history. The presentation examines Tanaka's pilgrimage to Mecca by analyzing his travelling diary (“The Pilgrim of Islam: The Travel Account of a White Cloud”, 1925) and his early essays (“Islam and Pan-Asianism”, “Future of Chinese Muslims and Japanese Shintō”, 1924), on which he worked while the pilgrimage.

Tanaka Ippei converted to Islam in 1924 in Jinan, China after a range of meetings and discussions with the local Muslim community, followers of Chinese Hui-Ru, which is also called “Islamic Confucianism”. Before converting to Islam, Tanaka was working on the translation and adaptation of the Chinese philosopher Guan Zhong's (管仲, 720-645) legacy while teaching Confucianism to the Chinese students in the local school. By referencing the ideas from Guan Zhong's political philosophy, Tanaka is trying to legitimize the necessity of Japan's acceptance of Islam. At the beginning of 1924, Tanaka also became interested in Pan-Asianism, ideas which he tended to use in his Islamic journey in order to formulate a new understanding of Islam as an Asian religion, that has common points with Japanese Shintō (in the Muslims’ concept of “divinity”) and Buddhism (in term of the understanding concept of the “after-life” in Islam). By studying his diary, we can see, that Tanaka's view on Islam grow to a deeper understanding of this religion as he gets closer and closer to Mecca. The presentation is exploring the history of Tanaka’s pilgrimage to Mecca in 1924 with an accent on the evolution of his understanding of Islam.