現在、東京代々木にある東京ジャーミーの前身として知られる東京モスクは、1938年に日本の国策のもと完成した建物としてよく知られている。対イスラーム政策の一環として在日タタール人らの要望に応えて建設されたモスクは、近代日本史の観点からは言及されてきたが、その建築的特徴と設計者についてはほとんど分析されることがなかった。本稿では設計者である吉本與志雄の経歴を紹介するとともに、なぜ彼が選ばれ、どのような建物が建てられたのかを考察する。吉本は東京工業専門学校で中堅技師としての建築教育を受けた人物で、折衷的な様式建築を得意とした。早くに三菱地所部を退所してからは個人事務所を経営したが、モダニズム建築が興隆する時代であり、確認できる仕事の数は少ない。三菱ネットワークから紹介された東京モスクは、様式建築設計の技術を持つ彼が腕を振るえる最後の舞台であり、書籍などで紹介されるエジプトの有名建築からの切り貼りによって構成されたのであった。
Tokyo Mosque was the second mosque in Japan built after Kobe Mosque. Being supported by the Japanese government and right-wing organizations who were seeking collaboration from Muslims in Asia, a Muslim-Tatar group in exile implemented the house of prayer at the heart of the imperial capital in 1938. The fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945 resulted in decline of the Muslim community in Japan as well as devastation of the mosque which was eventually demolished in 1986.
This paper examines the architectural aspect of the building along with its designer, Yoshio Yoshimoto. Yoshimoto, who was trained as a foreman at a technical school, is a less unknown architectural engineer in Japan. After learning various styles of Western architecture, he started his career and supervised several major constructions at Mitsubishi Estate, a leading architectural firm in Japan. However, when he established his own office in 1924, the eclectic architectural style Yoshimoto mastered was slowly giving way to modernism architectural style with less ornament. Tokyo Mosque was one of a few large-scale buildings he could design through the good offices of his Mitsubishi network which espoused Japanʼs expantionism. Tokyo Mosque turned out to be an ideal work for Yoshimotoʼs electic design style. The Muslims in Tokyo had already prepared a blueprint of mosque on which he could apply cut-and-paste designs from well-known Mamluk architecture found in publications. Tokyo Mosque marked the end of eclectic Western architecture in Japan on the eve of acceptance of modernism architecture.