A Non-Muslim’s Translation of Quran into Japanese
The translation was published under the name “Koran” five years after the end of World War II in February 1950.
It was published in 863 pages by the Iwanami Shoten Publishers.
Okawa was born in Yamagata region in northern Japan in 1886. While studying philosophy at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Literature, he became acquainted with Eastern thought and Hindu philosophy.
He wrote different literary works and was known as an expert on the Japnese people’s thoughts and ideologies.
Okawa he was also a serious researcher in the field of law and got a PhD in law from the University of Tokyo.
It is clear from his writings that in his school years, he read the life story of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and took courses about Islam. What sparked his interest in studying Islam was reading the works of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as he points out in the preface to his translation of the Quran.
After that, he continued to study about Islam until the end of his life.
Okawa began translating the Quran at the age of 30. His translation of the chapters of the Quran until Surah At-Tawbah were published in a local magazine.
At the same time, he translated the book Al-Hadith and wrote a biography of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). In 1942 he published a book titled “An Introduction to Islam” in Japanese.
After World War II, he decided to translate the entire Quran and spent two years on that. He published the rendering in 1950.
While he did a lot of study about Islam and liked the Holy Prophet (PBUH) a lot, Okawa did not embrace Islam. He died in 1959 at the age of 71.
Okawa had mastery over several foreign languages but he was not quite skillful in Arabic. He once wrote in a note that only a pious Muslim with full mastery of the Arabic language can translate the Quran as it deserves.
