Toshihiko Izutsu
Japanese author of many books on Islam and other religions (1914–1993)
Toshihiko Izutsu (井筒 俊彦, Izutsu Toshihiko; 4 May 1914 – 7 January 1993) was a Japanese scholar who specialized in Islamic studies and comparative religion. He took an interest in linguistics at a young age, and came to know more than thirty languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali, Hindustani, Russian, Greek, and Chinese. He is widely known for his translation of the Qurʾān into Japanese.
Life and academic career
He was born on 4 May 1914 into a wealthy family in Tokyo, Japan. From an early age, he was familiar with zen meditation and kōan, since his father was also a calligrapher and a practising lay Zen Buddhist. He entered the Faculty of Economics at Keio University but transferred to the Department of English literature, wishing to be instructed by Professor Junzaburō Nishiwaki. Following his bachelor's degree, he became a research assistant in 1937.
In 1958, he completed the first direct translation of the Quran from Arabic into Japanese (the first indirect translation had been accomplished a decade prior by Okawa Shumei). His translation is still renowned for its linguistic accuracy and is widely used for scholarly works. He was extremely talented in learning foreign languages and finished reading the Quran a month after beginning to learn Arabic.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1334449. VIAF identifies the subject as 73855022. The Library of Congress control number is n79109910. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1914, 1993, 1937 and 1958.
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This entry incorporates text from “Toshihiko Izutsu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.