From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates.nul>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:06:01 -0400
Fwd Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:06:01 -0400
Subject: Japanese Edo-Period UFO?




Source: Pink Tentacle.Com

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/09/edo-period-ufo/

2006.09.7

[Images & Links at site]


Edo-Period UFO

The Iwase Bunko Library has in its possession a document
entitled Hyouryuukishuu ("Tales of Castaways"), which was
printed during the late Edo period (1603-1868).

Edo-period UFO scroll

The document recounts the stories of Japanese sailors who find
themselves in foreign lands after becoming lost at sea, as well
as castaway foreigners washed ashore on the beaches of Japan. To
the Japanese people, who at the time had been living in a
prolonged period of national isolation, these exotic tales must
have seemed very fantastic.

Among these stories is the account of a wrecked ship with a very
mysterious appearance.

According to the document, this vessel washed ashore at
Harashagahama in Hitachi-no-kuni (present-day Ibaraki
prefecture). The body of the ship, described as 3.3 meters tall
and 5.4 meters wide, had been built from red sandalwood and iron
and was fitted with windows of glass or crystal. The mysterious
characters of an unknown alphabet were found inscribed inside
the vessel.

Edo-period UFO scrollAboard the drifting vessel was a finely
dressed young woman with a pale face and red eyebrows and hair.
She was estimated to be between 18 and 20 years old. Because she
spoke an unfamiliar tongue, those that encountered her were
unable to determine from whence she came. In her arms she
clutched a plain wooden box that appeared to be of great value
to her, as she would allow nobody to approach it.

The document shows a portion of the text found inside the ship
(see left).

Other Edo-period documents describe variations of this
mysterious encounter. Toen Shousetsu (1825), a book by Kyokutei
Bakin (who is most famous for his 106-volume samurai epic Nansou
Satomi Hakkenden) tells the story of the same encounter,
referring to the strange vessel as the utsuro-fune ("hollow
ship"). Another variation of this tale appears in Ume no Chiri
(1844), penned by a relatively unknown author named Nagahashi
Matajirou. A thorough analysis of these two variations of the
story can be found in a translated article by Kazuo Tanaka
titled Did A Close Encounter Of The Third Kind Occur On A
Japanese Beach In 1803?

Contemporary fans of the paranormal know this ship as the
Edo-period UFO.