The Utsuro-bune ("hollow boat") was an object that "allegedly washed ashore in 1803 in Hitachi province on the eastern coast of Japan." 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."
The most detailed account describes a craft "3.30 metres high and 5.45 metres wide" whose shape "reminded them of a kōro (Japanese incense burner)." The upper part "appeared to be made of red-lacquered rosewood" with windows "made of glass or crystal," and "the inner side of the utsuro-bune was decorated with texts written in an unknown language."
The story survives in four texts written between 1815 and 1844. Historians such as Kazuo Tanaka and Yanagita Kunio treat it as folklore; "certain ufologists have claimed that the story is evidence of a close encounter with extraterrestrial life."
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