Did a Close Encounter of the Third Kind Occur on a Japanese Beach in 1803?

Many foreign characters (see figure 1) were found inside this boat. I found similar characters on a British ship that recently arrived offshore from Uraga in Japan. From this observation, that woman may be a British, Bengali, or American princess. No one knows exactly. The woman and boat were illustrated by persons who were interested in this incident at that time and are shown in figure 2. I am somewhat disappointed because the illustrations and sentences are not consistent. If anyone knows anything concerning this incident, please let me know.

Ume no Chiri

Book title: Utsuro-fune no Koto (Concerning An Incident of The Hollow Boat)

On March 24, 1803, a strange boat drifted ashore on a beach named Haratono-hama in Hitachi state in Japan. The boat was hollow and its shape was similar to a rice-cooking pot. It had a kind of rimmed-edge at the center-level part of the boat. In the part above this edge, the boat was painted in black and had four small windows on four sides. All shoji (windows with lattice) were shielded by chan (a kind of waterproof putty made from pine-tree gum). The lower part of the boat was reinforced by steel bars. These bars looked to be made of Western-made iron of the highest quality. The height of the boat was one jyou, two shaku (3.64m) and its diameter was one jyou, eight shaku (5.45m).

A woman (or girl) was found inside this boat and her age appeared around twenty. She was about five shaku (1.5m) tall and her skin was white as snow. Her long hair vividly hung on her back. Her facial features were incomparably beautiful. Her clothes were strange and unrecognizable and her language was not understood by anyone. She held a small box in her hands and prohibited anyone from approaching this box.

In this boat, there were two pieces of a kind of carpet. They were very soft and of an unknown type. There was a kind of cake and a kneaded food. There was also some sort of meat. There was a cup, and its design was very beautiful, though no one recognized the design.

"Haratono-hama" is a territory of Lord Ogasawara-Izumi.

Folklore of Utsuro-fune or Utsubo-fune

When we read the above stories and see illustrations as shown in figures 2 and 3, we may wonder whether these stories are based on a true incident. In fact, people who are interested in UFOs all over the world as well as in Japan have regarded the stories and illustrations as records of a close encounter of the third kind that really occurred in 1803 in Japan (Mori 1987; Natsis and Potter 1985; Takahashi 1996; Furukawa 1996).

However, people who have some knowledge of Japanese folklore have noticed that both stories are similar to the Japanese folklore of Utsuro-fune or Utsubo-fune (Ishigami 1992). This folklore has been handed down in many areas of the country, especially the western parts of Japan. Similar folklore and myths can be found throughout the world, such as in the account of Noah's ark (Nagadome 1997). Iris possible that the origin of this folklore can be traced to the ancient national memory of Japanese immigration. In ancient times, people immigrated to the Japanese islands from many parts of Asia by using simple dugouts. After arriving at a Japanese island, some dominant families in Japan created the folklore based on the national memory and myth, in order to bolster the political legitimacy of their rule. The typical story of the folklore is that an ancestor of a family was a foreign noblewoman who crossed the sea by boat (Yanagida 1962). In the folkiore, a dugout or a small boat has been called Utsuro-fune or Uts ubo-fune. Utsuro in Japanese means "vacant" or "hollow." Utsubo is a kind of a hollow bag, and was used for holding arrows by Samurai in old Japan. Both words have often been used to describe a cavity in an old holy tree in some Japanese myths (Ishigami 1992). Since fune means "ship" or "boat," Utsuro-fune and Utsubo-fune have the same meaning, i.e., "hollow boat" (ship). It is apparent that these words are based on the structure of dugouts used in ancient times.