Dear Ambassador of Iran,
I’ve read this morning the article of your opinion “Wish for development of better relations between Iran and Japan” in the Asahi Shinbun.
Although there is a close economical relation between Iran and Japan such as Japan owes much to Iran for Oil resources and Iran owes much to Japan for Industrial products, and most Iranians hold very friendly and familiar feeling to Japan, Japanese people necessarily have enough understanding or knowledge of Iran. You as Iranian ambassador must be surely aware of it.
When I was a university student of architecture, I could not approve of the Japanese tendency to learn solely European and American architecture and follow them, neglecting Asian architecture. So, since I became an independent architect I have been studying Indian and Islamic architecture, traveling widely in Asian countries. In Iran, I traveled for taking photographs of historical architectural works for three weeks in 1980, for three weeks in 2004, and for one month in 2007. The stock of color slides of Iranian architecture all over the country numbers in the 2,000 as semi-professional photos using a high-grade camera and camera-stand.
I am introducing in my website the Sheikh Lutfollah Mosque in Isfahan and the Desert Town of Bam in the pages of “Gallery of World Architecture,” and the Friday Mosque in Zavareh and Tarik-Khane Mosque in Damghan in the pages of “Sacred Architecture in the World.” In 1987 I published a book “Architectural Culture of Islam” translated from French by me, and in 1989 “Design of Paradise, Gardening Culture of Islam” translated from English by me.
In spite of such endeavor, the notion for the Islamic world by Japanese people in general has not advanced so much in these thirty years. Rather people have prejudices like “I dread Islamic countries” or “Muslims could be violent people.” The principle reason is considered that the reports of Islamic countries on the TV or Newspapers are always negative images such as Terrorism, War, Kidnapping, and Shooting up of oil prices, etc.
In recent years in Japan, the Korean drama “Winter Sonata” has gotten a great reputation. Most Japanese who had not embraced good feelings to Korea have changed through the fashion of this drama, increasing affinity and love with Korea. Cultural exchange between the two countries has made great progress. When one regards relations with foreign counties through political and economical points of view, there can be mostly confrontations of interests. But art and culture can take away such obstacles and have a power to reconcile and make people intimate each other.
The film works of Abbas Kiarostami and other directors performed such a role, but it can be said that the representatives of Islamic culture must be Architecture and Gardens after all. Recognizing the beauty and greatness of Islamic architecture, Japanese people could change their notion of Islam and will have familiar feeling on such Islamic countries as Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and others who keep enormous heritages of Islamic architecture and gardens.
So, I wrote a book entitled the “ARCHITECTURE OF ISLAM: Its Charm and Elucidation” two years ago, as the first serious and comprehensive book on Islamic architecture. It includes from the principles of Islam to the characteristics of Islamic architecture, putting a lot of color photographs to be comprehensible and attractive for the general public. As it was also written with expertise, I am even hoping it will be translated not only in English but also in Persian to be published in Iran (the English edition of my book “The Guide to the Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent” has been published in India).
However the publisher, Shoukoku-sha, at the last stage of editing refused to publish this book, ignoring even the publishing contract to have to publish within half a year after receiving the manuscript from the auther. It is quite unhappy not only for Japanese people but also for Islamic countries that the book, which is to bring image-up of Islam in Japan, is not published. Behind all this there is a dark and complicated background of Japanese architectural society, but leaving it outside, the organizations of Islam in Japan and Embassies of foreign countries would be disgusted by this topic of disturbance of the publication of my book. Then, I would like to ask Embassies of Islamic countries in Japan to make a protest to the publisher and demand to publish the book soon.
The details are written in my website ( http://www.ne.jp/asahi/arc/ind/ ), in the pages of “Information” or “Publications.” I enclose a copy of the introduction of the book “Architecture of Islam” printed out from that. I will appreciate if you appeal to the other Embassies of Islamic countries to do the same.

on July 1st, 2008
Takeo Kamiya, architect