Jun 16, 2020

Utsuro-Bune

by Nichole, Magical Marketing Millenial

Utsuro-bune translates as “hollow boat” in Japanese. This folklore story is recorded in at least three Japanese texts, Toen shōsetsu (1825), Hyōryū kishū (1835) and Ume-no-chiri (1844),  and has oddly specific details regarding the encounter. The story goes that on February 22, 1803, on the coast of eastern Japan in the Hitachi province, a local fisherman spotted a boat that was about 10.8 ft high by 17.7 ft wide floating just offshore. The hollow metal boat was the shape of a saucer, had crystal windows, and the bottom was covered with copper plates. The curious fisherman guided the ship ashore to investigate. Written on the interior walls, they found inscriptions in an unknown language. There was also water, food, bedding, and carpets. A strange and beautiful woman, about 18 or 20 years old, around five feet tall, with red eyebrows, and red hair adorned with white extensions made of skin or fabric was also inside. She wore a long garment made of unknown white fabric. In her hands, she held a metal box that was about nine inches in length. She fiercely refused to let anyone touch or come close to it. When the fisherman tried to communicate with her, she spoke a language that was not Japanese.

Frightened by the strangeness of the situation, and being unable to communicate with her, they put her back into the ship and returned it to the sea. Some claim that this could be one of the first documented encounters with beings from another planet, comparing the strange symbols found on the walls with those at other purported extraterrestrial sites, which share strong similarities to those symbols that accompany the Roswell and Rendlesham Forest incidents. Others think she simply was from another country, such as Russia, based on her characteristic features. The real question remains, however: what was in the box?