Utsuro-Bune History: 19th Century Japanese UFO
A mysterious event in Japan in the early 19th century bears a striking resemblance to UFO stories.
Tanaka Kazuo. Distinguished Professor at Gifu University. Born in 1947. He specializes in optical information engineering, but has also lectured on skeptical thinking. Principal investigator of the utsurobune (hollow ship) legends.
In 1803, a round ship arrived on the Japanese coast, and a beautiful woman in strange clothes came out of it with a box in her hands. She couldn’t communicate with the locals and her craft was marked with mysterious writings.
This story of the utsurobune, or “hollow ship,” in Hitachi Province (now Ibaraki Prefecture) appears in many records from the Edo period (1603-1868), and Tanaka Kazuo, a professor emeritus at Gifu University, has studied the theme for many years. years.
What made you move away from his main field of research, applied optics, and dedicate yourself to the study of this curious episode? And what really happened?
“Like a flying saucer”
Tanaka says he began studying the ship after the deadly 1995 sarin gas attacks on the subway by the Aum Shinrikyo cult. “There were many reports of the prophecies of the founder of Aum, Asahara Shoko, and his claims that he could float in the air.
At the same time, the oldest members of the cult were part of the scientific elite. I started lecturing, looking at the paranormal from a scientific point of view, which meant that I collected all kinds of teaching materials, like UFOs in the US and Japanese folklore.
While doing this, I came across the legend of the utsurobune.” And he adds: “Long before American UFO stories, the ship depicted in Japanese documents from the Edo period somehow resembled a flying saucer. I love it”.
UFOs became a modern sensation after the media reported on June 24, 1947 that American Businessman Kenneth Arnold had witnessed “flying saucers.” A flood of similar stories followed from around the world.
The most famous was the claim that in July 1947 a UFO crashed to the ground near Roswell, New Mexico. “However, no debris or alien bodies were ultimately found,” says Tanaka. Only mixed eyewitness accounts remain.
“It was the same with all the other UFO stories around the world: they were mysteries without any significant evidence. The legend of the utsurobune, however, has a series of documents that can be considered as clues, so in that sense, for researchers it is a mystery with content.
There are similar oral traditions about “hollow ships” throughout Japan during the Edo period. Tanaka’s research focuses on several documents that describe the Hitachi incident of 1803 and include illustrations of a beautiful woman and a strange vessel, although they give different dates.
One of the best-known sources is Toen shōsetsu (Toen Stories), an 1825 collection of fantastic gossip written by the Toenkai literary circle and edited by Kyokutei Bakin, famous for his long historical novel Nansō Satomi hakkenden (Chronicles of Eight Dogs).
Others include Nagahashi Matajiro’s 1844 Ume no Hiri (Plum Dust) and collections such as Ōshuku zakki (Ōshuku’s Notes).
To date, he has found 11 documents related to the Hitachi utsurobune legend, the most interesting of which dates from 1803, the same year the ship is said to have washed ashore.
One of them is “Mito bunsho” (Mito Document) owned by a collector from Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. Tanaka noted that the dress of the woman in the illustration in this work is similar to that of the bodhisattva statue at Shofukuji Temple in Kamisu, also in Ibaraki, which is dedicated to silkworm farming.
Legend attributes the start of sericulture in the area to Princess Konjiki (or “golden princess”), who is the motif of the images in the temple. According to one version, Princess Konjiki was washed ashore after Traveling from India in a cocoon-shaped dug-out boat.
She repays her kindness to a local couple who try to restore her Health by passing on the secrets of sericulture when she herself turns into a silkworm after her death. Among the various materials, only the illustration in Mito’s document looked very similar to Princess Konjiki.
Another even more important source is the “Banke bunsho” (Banke Document) owned by Kawakami Jin’ichi, heir to the Koka ninjutsu (art of the ninja) tradition, ninjutsu researcher and martial artist. It is named after the Banke, or Ban, Koka ninja family.
While other material claims the ship made landfall at places like Harayadori or Haratonohama, there is no evidence for such places.
In this document, however, the site is recorded as Hitachihara Sharihama, which appeared on a map drawn by renowned cartographer Ino Tadataka and is now known as Hasaki Sharihama in Kamisu.
Tanaka comments that while other materials show geographic inconsistencies, this document mentions the actual name of the area.
He says that Kawakami suggested that one of Banke’s members may have been collecting information while working for the head of Owari Domain (now Aichi Prefecture). “If that is the case, then he would not write lies, so we can say that the document is very reliable.”
The folklorist Yanagita Kunio once said that all legends about utsurobune are baseless fabrications. “But in the case of the Hitachi utsurobune, there is a clear difference from other stories in the country,” says Tanaka. “First of all, it is claimed that this happened in 1803.
And then it’s weird that there are specific photographs of the ship where it looks like a flying saucer. I think it was most likely based on something that happened.
But Japan was a pretty closed country back then, so if a foreign ship was wrecked or foreigners came to the country, it would be a big event and a government official would investigate and leave a public document.
When in 1824 British sailors entered the island of Ōtsuhama [now Kitaibaraki], this was one of the reasons for the promulgation the following year of the edict on the exclusion of foreign ships. So maybe there are eyewitness accounts that something happened in Kasimanad for a short time. It is possible that this was connected to earlier legends about the Utsurobune.”
Just as descriptions of a woman’s clothing vary from document to document, so do descriptions of the shape and size of her vessel. For example, the Castle Record says it was about 3.3 meters high and 5.4 meters wide (in modern terms) and made of rosewood and iron with glass and crystal windows.
“I’m not sure if the Castanets Notes were an official document. There are two volumes in total, and apart from the utsurobune, they all depict incidents that actually took place. This suggests that the author at least believed that the utsurobune actually washed ashore,” says Tanaka.
There are innumerable mysteries associated with the “hollow ship”, for example, the meaning of the font written inside it.
Tanaka says that, according to one version, it resembles pseudo-Roman letters, which are sometimes found on the borders of ukiyo-e prints. “So it could just be decorative. Although we may find evidence that it’s alien writing!”
Having said this, he laughs. “It is likely that there will be more discoveries of unknown materials related to utsurobune and new revelations.
This legend is so attractive because there are so many different theories that can be invented. Having a similar History in Japan, 140 years before the American UFO sightings, which is so stimulating to the imagination, reminds me of how deep and fascinating Japanese culture can be.”
Comments
Post a Comment