Utsuro-bune — the "hollow ship" of Hitachi

Several Japanese books of the 1820s–1840s tell how fishermen found a strange round boat washed up on the coast of Hitachi Province in 1803. Inside was a young woman who spoke no known language and clutched a box she would let no one touch. The fishermen pushed the vessel back out to sea. The drawings of the round, windowed ship are often compared with modern "flying saucers".

Explanation

Historians treat it as folklore: the story appears in several Edo-period collections with conflicting details, and resembles older legends of exiled women set adrift in boats.

What was seen

Shape: Round vessel of wood and iron with glass windows
Witnesses: Fishermen (as told in Edo-period accounts)
Duration: —

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• Japan
• Before 1900
• Explained
• Historical accounts
• Many independent witnesses
• Spheres and orbs