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Paper short abstract

The presentation explores Tanaka Ippei’s representation of the Prophet Muhammad as a militant leader, a sage, a hero and a saint. Analysis of his early writings illuminates the indigenisation strategies through which Tanaka adapted Islamic theology to the Japanese context.

Paper long abstract

Tanaka Ippei 田中逸平 (1882–1932) is recognised as the pioneer of Islam in Japan, having established the foundation for the religion’s development. The present research analyses the image of the Prophet Muhammad that Tanaka depicts in “The Journey of the Wandering White Cloud: Islamic Pilgrimage” account and accompanying essays (“Islam and Pan-Asianism”, “Future of Chinese Muslims and Japanese Shintō”, 1924), which he completed during his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Tanaka Ippei converted to Islam in 1924 in Jinan, China, after a range of meetings with the local Muslim community, following Liu Zhi’s (劉智, 1660-1739) interpretation of Islam. Before converting to Islam, Tanaka was working on the translation of the Chinese philosopher Guan Zhong’s (管仲, 720-645 BCE) legacy while teaching Confucianism to the Chinese students in the local school. His sustained engagement with Confucian thought, together with the background in the Misogi-kyō, provided the framework for the conscious attempt to indigenize Islam in the Japanese context. The project started by reimagining the basic concepts of Islamic thought – the deity, the Prophet, the society (Arab. ummah) and the ritual.

Tanaka employed seijin (sage) to introduce Muhammad at the beginning of the pilgrimage account – following Liu Zhi's Neo-Confucian framework – to position Muhammad among five universal sages alongside Confucius, Jesus, Shakyamuni, and Laozi. At the same time, he neglected standard Japanese terms for “prophet” (yogensha, senchi). The following portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad operates across three dimensions: Muhammad as sage (moral exemplar accessible through Confucian cultivation vocabulary), as saint (drawing on Liu Zhi’s Sufi-influenced Akbarian concept of the “Light of Muhammad”), and as political leader – the “Man with Sword and Qur’an” whose disciplined militancy could fortify Japan against Western influence.

The research focuses on Tanaka’s strategies of indigenisation of the image of the Prophet Muhammad in the Japanese context. By positioning him as a cultural mediator whose vision of “Japanese Islam” anticipated the 1930s kaikyō seisaku (Islamic policy), the work illuminates both Japan’s cultural integration approach and explores Islam’s adaptability within diverse contexts.