Utsuro-bune
legendary "hollow boat" that washed ashore in Japan in 1803
Utsuro-bune (虚舟, hollow boat), 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. 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.
Toen Shōsetsu (兎園小説; Tales from the Rabbit Garden), compiled in 1825 by Kyokutei Bakin.
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This entry incorporates text from “Utsuro-bune” 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.