, also Utsuro-fune and Urobune, was an unknown object that allegedly washed ashore in 1803 in Hitachi province on the eastern coast of Japan. Utsuro means "hollow" and -bune (from fune) means "boat". Accounts of the incident appear in four texts: Oushuku Zakki (1815), Toen Shōsetsu (1825), Hyōryū Kishū (1835) and Ume-no-chiri (1844).
According to the legend, a young woman aged between 18 and 20 arrived aboard the "hollow boat" on February 22, 1803. Fishermen brought her inland, but she was unable to communicate in Japanese. The fishermen returned her and her vessel to the sea, and it drifted away.
Historians, ethnologists and physicists such as Kazuo Tanaka and Yanagita Kunio have discussed the legend as part of a longstanding tradition within Japanese folklore.Kunio Yanagita, Fanny Hagin Mayer, Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai, The Yanagita Kunio Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1986 , p. 176–178. Certain ufologists have claimed that the story is evidence of a close encounter with extraterrestrial life.
Historical sources The best-known versions of the legend are found in four texts:
Oushuku Zakki (鶯宿雑記; Miscellaneous Notes from the Nightingale Inn) written by Komai Norimura around 1815. , compiled in 1825 by Kyokutei Bakin. The manuscript is today on display at the Mukyū-Kai-Toshokan in Machida (Tokyo Prefecture). , written in 1835 by an unknown author. It is today on display at the library of Tenri University in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture. , written in 1844 by Nagahashi Matajirō. It is today on display at the Iwase-Bunko-Toshokan, a private library in Nara City.
Toen Shōsetsu contains the most detailed version of the story.
Legend
Toen shōsetsu On February 22, 1803, fishermen on the coast of Hitachi Province(常陸国, today Ibaraki Prefecture) saw a strange vessel drifting in the sea. They towed the vessel to land and discovered that it was 3.30 metres (10.83 feet) high and 5.45 metres (17.88 feet) wide. Its shape reminded them of a kōro (Japanese incense burner). Its upper part appeared to be made of red-lacquered rosewood, while the lower part was covered with metal plates.Kazuo Tanaka, "Did a Close Encounter of the Third Kind Occur on a Japanese Beach in 1803?" in Skeptical Inquirer, Volume 24(4), July/August 2000. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Amherst, New York, 2000. , page 37 – 60.Masaru Mori: The female alien in a hollow vessel. In: Fortean Times, Vol. 48, 1987. Dennis Publishing Ltd., London 1987, , page 48–50.
The upper part had several windows made of glass or crystal, covered with bars and clogged with some kind of tree resin. The shape of the hollow boat resembled a wooden rice pit. The windows were completely transparent and the baffled fishermen looked inside. The inner side of the utsuro-bune was decorated with texts written in an unknown language. Oddly enough, one of the symbols inside the vessel resembled South Korea's current flag. The fishermen found items inside such as two bed sheets, a bottle filled with 3.6 litres of water, some cake and kneaded meat.Masaru Mori: The female alien in a hollow vessel. In: Fortean Times, Vol. 48, 1987. Dennis Publishing Ltd., London 1987, , page 48–50.
Then the fishermen saw a young woman, possibly 18 or 20 years old. Her body size was said to be 1.5 metres (4.92 feet). The woman had red hair and eyebrows, the hair elongated by artificial white extensions. The extensions could have been made of white fur or thin, white-powdered textile streaks. This hairstyle cannot be found in any literature. The skin of the lady was a very pale pink color. She wore long and smooth clothes of unknown fabrics.Masaru Mori: The female alien in a hollow vessel. In: Fortean Times, Vol. 48, 1987. Dennis Publishing Ltd., London 1987, , page 48–50.
The woman began speaking, but no one understood her. She did not seem to understand the fishermen either, so no one could ask her about her origin. Although the mysterious woman appeared friendly and courteous, she acted oddly, for she always clutched a rectangular box made of pale material and around 0.6 m (24 in) in size. The woman did not allow anyone to touch the box, no matter how kindly or pressingly the witnesses asked.Masaru Mori: The female alien in a hollow vessel. In: Fortean Times, Vol. 48, 1987. Dennis Publishing Ltd., London 1987, , page 48–50.
An old man from the village theorised, that the woman could be a princess of a foreign realm, who married at her homeland. But when she had an affair with a townsman after marriage, it caused a scandal and the lover was killed for punishment. The princess was banned from home, for she enjoyed lots of sympathy, so she escaped the death penalty. Instead, she might have been exposed in that utsuro-bune to leave her to destiny. If this should be correct, the box may contain the head of the woman's deceased lover. In the past, a very similar object with a woman was washed ashore on a close-by beach.Masaru Mori: The female alien in a hollow vessel. In: Fortean Times, Vol. 48, 1987. Dennis Publishing Ltd., London 1987, , page 48–50.
During that incident, a small board with a pinned head was found. The content of the box could therefore be the same, which would certainly explain why she protects it so much. It would cost lots of money and time to investigate the woman and her boat. Since it seems to be tradition to expose those boats at sea, the townspeople thought they should bring the woman back to the utsuro-bune and let her drift away. The townspeople were frightened. In a different version, the lady from the hollow boat stays where she landed and grows to old age. The fishermen reassembled the utsuro-bune, placed the woman in it, and set it to drift away into the ocean. From human sight it might be cruel, but it seems to be her predetermined destiny.Masaru Mori: The female alien in a hollow vessel. In: Fortean Times, Vol. 48, 1987. Dennis Publishing Ltd., London 1987, , page 48–50.
Ume no chiri On March 24, 1803, at the beach of in the Hitachi province, a strange 'boat' was washed ashore. It reminded the witnesses of a rice cooking pot, around its middle it had a thickened rim. It was also coated with black paint and it had four little windows on four sides. The windows had bars and they were clogged with tree resin. The lower part of the boat was protected by brazen plates which looked to be made of iron of the highest western quality. The height of the boat was 3.33 m (10.83 ft) and its breadth was 5.41 m (17.75 ft).
A woman of 20 years was found in the boat. Her body size was 1.5 m (4.92 ft) and her skin was as white as snow. The long hair dangled smoothly down along her back. The dress of the woman was of unknown style and no one could recognise it. She spoke an unknown language. She held a small box no one was allowed to touch. Inside the boat two unusually soft carpets of unknown style and fabric were found. There were supplies such as cake, kneaded food and meat. A beautifully decorated cup with ornaments no one could identify was also found.
Similar traditions There are several further documents about utsuro-bune sightings in Japan. For example, describes an utsuro-bune docking at Toyohashi in May of the 11th year of Genroku (1698). The incident is described as follows: there "is only one woman in the boat. It seems that she was sent back to Nagasaki because she could not understand the language." and .The investigation started in 1844, and continued in 1925, and 1962. In 2010 and 2012, two rare ink printings were found and investigated by Kazuo Tanaka. In 1977, they contained stories about utsuro-bune with very similar content to that of the hyōryū kishū. Further, they claim a different location for the events: ('harbour of Bōshū').
Other legends concerning utsuro-bune A well known Japanese legend is that of the origin of the Kōno clan of the Iyo Province. In the 7th century, a fisherman named from Gogo island found a 13-year-old girl inside an utsuro-bune drifting at sea. He brought her to land, where she told him that she was the daughter of the Chinese emperor and that she had been forced to flee to escape her stepmother. The fisherman named her ("princess Wake") and raised her, before she married an imperial prince of Iyo province and gave birth to a son named , the ancestor of the Kōno clan. A part of this folktale held that she was responsible for bringing the first silk cocoons to Japan. Princess Wake is still worshiped at the Funakoshi Wakehime Shinto shrine in the village of Funakoshi on Gogo island.Moku Jōya: Japan And Things Japanese. Japan Times, Tokyo 1958. S. 227 & 228.
Yet another legend that shares a lot of similarities with the story about "Wakehime" is the legend of the "Golden Princess" Konjiki-hime, of which there are several variations. But the common element is that a fisherman finds a girl set adrift in a boat, who explains that she is "a princess from India." She repays the kindness of the fisherman and his wife bestowing on them the secrets of sericulture.
Interpretations
Historical investigations The first historical investigations of the Utsuro-bune incident were conducted in 1844 by Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848). Kyokutei reports about a book called , written by Kanamori Kinken. The book describes traditional Russian clothes and hairstyles and mentions a popular method to dust hair with white powder. It also mentions that many Russian women have natural red hair and that they wear skirts, similar to that of the lady of the legend. The accounts in the book are most likely based on the experiences of Daikokuya Kōdayū.
This was a hair fashion that would have been common in 1782-1792 when Kodayu visited Russia, but it would have been extremely unusual and outdated by the year 1803.
Based upon the book, Kyokutei suggests that the woman of the Utsuro-bune incident could have been of Russian origin. He writes that the stories are similar to each other, as they differ only in minor descriptions (for example, one documents says "3.6 litres of water", another says "36 litres of water"). He also questions the origin of the alleged exotic symbols found in and on the boat. Because he is convinced that he saw similar signs on a British whaler stranded shortly before his writing, Kyokutei wonders if the woman was a Russian, British or even American princess. Furthermore, he expresses his disappointment about the drawings of the Utsuro-bune, because they obviously do not fully match the witness descriptions.
Modern investigations Further investigations of the Utsuro-bune incident were done in 1925 and in 1962 by ethnologist and historian Yanagita Kunio. He points out that circular boats were not unusual in Japan (see for example Tarai-bune); only the western-like details, such as the windows made of glass and the brazen protective plates, make the Utsuro-bune look exotic. He also found out that most legends similar to that of the Utsuro-bune sound alike: someone finds a strange girl or young woman inside a circular boat and rescues the stranded or sends her back to the ocean.
Yanagita also points out that the eldest versions of Utsuro-bune describe humble, circular and open log-boats without any dome atop. Yanagita assumes that the details of the brazen plates and windows made of glass or crystal were added because skeptics would question the seaworthiness of a humble log-boat on the high seas. A steel-reinforced Utsuro-bune with glass windows would more easily survive travel on the ocean than an open, unreinforced wooden boat would.