On February 22, 1803, local fishers of the Harayadori ( はらやどり) shore in the Hitachi province saw an ominous 'ship' drifting in the waters. Legend Īn ink drawing of the Utsuro-bune by Nagahashi Matajirou (1844). The book Toen shōsetsu contains the most detailed version. It is today on display at the private library Iwase-Bunko-Toshokan (岩瀬文庫図書館) at Nara.ĭescription in all three books bear similarity, thus they seem to have the same historical origins.

Ume-no-chiri ( 梅の塵, 'dust of the apricot'), composed in 1844 by Nagahashi Matajirō.

It is today on display at the library of the Tenri University at Tenri in the Nara prefecture. Hyōryū kishū ( 漂流紀集, 'diaries and stories of castaways'), composed during the Edo period in 1835 by an unknown author.The manuscript is today on display at the Mukyū-Kai-Toshokan at Machida ( Tokyo prefecture). Toen shōsetsu ( 兎園小説, 'tales from the rabbit garden'), composed in 1825 by Kyokutei Bakin.The best-known versions of the legend are found in three texts: 2.4 Other legends concerning Utsuro-bune.Alternatively, certain ufologists have claimed that the story represents evidence for a close encounter with extraterrestrial life. Historians, ethnologists and physicists such as Kazuo Tanaka and Yanagita Kunio have evaluated the 'legend of the hollow boat' as part of a long-standing tradition within Japanese folklore. The fishermen then returned her and her vessel to the sea, where it drifted away. She was very different from anyone else there. Fishermen brought her inland to investigate further, but the woman was unable to communicate in Japanese. Accounts of the tale appear in three texts: Toen shōsetsu (1825), Hyōryū kishū (1835) and Ume-no-chiri (1844).Īccording to legend, an attractive young woman aged 18-20 years old, arrived on a local beach aboard the 'hollow ship' on February 22, 1803. When defining Utsuro-bune, the bune part means 'boat' while Utsuro means empty, or hollow. Utsuro-bune ( 虚舟, 'hollow ship'), also Utsuro-fune, and Urobune, was an unknown object that allegedly washed ashore in 1803 in Hitachi province on the eastern coast of Japan. Manjudō, the strange boat drifted ashore on fief of Lord Ogasawara.

Strange story japanese