On this month's Morbidly Fascinating Page:
The UFOs (UAPs) of Japan
The above early 19th Century image portrayed an unknown object that washed ashore in 1803.
Utsuro-bune (虚舟, hollow boat), also Utsuro-fune, and Urobune, was an unknown object that was allegedly washed ashore in 1803 in Hitachi province on the eastern coast of Japan. Utsuro means "hollow" and -bune (from fune) means "boat". Accounts of the incident appear in four texts: Oushuku Zakki (1815), Toen Shōsetsu (1825), Hyōryū Kishū (1835) and Ume-no-chiri (1844).
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.
Historians, ethnologists and physicists such as Kazuo Tanaka and Yanagita Kunio have discussed the legend as part of a longstanding tradition within Japanese folklore.[1][2] Certain ufologists have claimed that the story is evidence of a close encounter with extraterrestrial life.[3]
On February 22, 1803, fishermen on the Harayadori (はらやどり) saw a strange vessel drifting in the sea. They towed the vessel to land and discovered that it was 3.3 metres (10.83 feet) high and 5.45 metres (17.88 feet) wide. Its shape reminded them of a kōhako (Japanese insense burner). Its upper part appeared to be made of red-lacquered rosewood while the lower part was covered with metal plates.
The upper part had several windows made of glass or crystal, covered with bars and clogged with some kind of tree resin. The shape of the hollow boat resembled a wooden rice pit. The windows were completely transparent and the baffled fishermen looked inside. The inner side of the Utsuro-bune was decorated with texts written in an unknown language. Oddly enough, one of the symbols inside the vessel, resembled Sout Korea's current flag, which was not used at the time. The fishermen found items inside such as two bed sheets, a bottle filled with 3.6 litres of water, some cake and kneaded meat.
Then the fishermen saw a young woman, possibly 18 to 20 years old. Her body size was said to be only 1.5 metres (4.92 feet). The woman had red hair and eyebrows, the hair elongated by artificial white extensions. The extensions could have been made of white fur or thin, white-powdered textile streaks. This hairstyle cannot be found in any literature. The skin of the lady was a very pale pink color. She wore long and smooth clothes of unknown fabrics.
The woman began speaking, but no one understood her. She did not seem to understand the fishermen either, so no one could ask her about her origin. Although the mysterious woman appeared friendly and courteous, she acted oddly, for she always clutched a quadratic box made of pale material and around 0.6 m (24 in) in size. The woman did not allow anyone to touch the box, no matter how kindly or pressingly the witnesses asked.
Since it seemed to be tradition to expose those boats at sea, the townspeople thought should bring the woman back to the Utsuro-bune and let her drift away. The townspeople were frightened. From human opinion it might be cruel, but at the time, it was determined to be her "predetermined destiny." The fishermen reassembled the Utsuro-bune, placed the woman in it, and set it to drift away into the ocean.
See more on Wikipedia HERE
Above: two early 19th Century drawings of the incident--the second drawing showing red hair
Above: a modern model of the incident including the red-headed woman (photo and story found HERE)
There is an older sighting of a UFO in Japan
Curiously, a number of records from the Edo period (1603-1868) indicate that a beautiful woman left in Japan by a round vessel (utsurobune). Somehow the shape of the vessel is similar to a classic flying saucer.
According to the story, an old bamboo cutter found a baby girl (Princess Kaguya) inside a shining bamboo stalk. She grows up to be a mysteriously beautiful woman. With unearthly charm, Kaguya attracts all people around her, and quite a few men, including the Emperor, propose to marry her, but she turns down all of them. Kaguya explains that she does not belong to the Earth, and needs to go back to the moon. In the end, a delegation from the moon arrives on the Earth in some sort of flying vessel to take Kaguya back home. Soldiers of the Emperor try to guard Kaguya, but she is eventually taken back to the moon.
This story is familiar to almost all Japanese people, because it is read at home and used as reading material at school. Moreover, the story was made into the animated film “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” by Studio Ghibli, and a lunar orbit injection maneuver, Kaguya (SELENE), launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was named after the extraterrestrial princess.
See more from The Diplomat HERE
What is Japan's stance on UFOs (UAPs) today?
Japanese Defense Ministry unveils protocol for encountering UFOs
Protocol for UFOs? That’s exactly what Defense Minister Taro Kono ordered the Self-Defense Forces to follow in 2020 as he issued standing orders for dealing with unidentified aerial objects that could pose a threat to Japan’s security.
In a statement, Kono asked SDF members to record and photograph any such objects that they encounter or that enter Japanese airspace and to take steps for the “necessary analysis” of the sightings, including information provided separately by the public.
While the Defense Ministry says there have been no known cases of the SDF encountering UFOs, the latest move comes after the U.S. Defense Department established a special Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in order “to improve its understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins” of the objects and other phenomena.
See more HERE
The International UFO Laboratory in Fukushima opened on June 24, 2021. It aims to investigate mysterious UFO sightings over Japan.
Spaceship or butterfly? New UFO center causing a stir
By YUKIKO SAKAMOTO/ Staff Writer
Only one of a sequence of photographs taken at the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in Tateyama, Toyama Prefecture, in September 2018 shows a black object in the sky. (Provided by the International UFO Lab)
FUKUSHIMA--The central government remains tight-lipped about photos and videos of possible flying saucers in Japan that were “authenticated” by an authority on the subject.
“We are aware of the findings, but we decline to comment,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki said at a news conference on June 27.
The two photos and two video clips of mysterious objects floating in the sky in Japan were uploaded to the website of the International UFO Lab based in Fukushima two days earlier.
The images have raised speculation that alien beings have visited Japan.
But the same images have also brought out skeptics, many of whom say that one of the unidentified flying objects is probably just an out-of-focus butterfly.
The International UFO Lab was set up inside the UFO Fureaikan museum in Fukushima city’s Iinomachi district in June 2021.
The center, whose purpose is to promote the community, collects, analyzes and publishes information on UFO sightings around the world.
The lab judges the authenticity of UFO sightings based on its own standards. It reviews the clarity of the images and footage, and whether the mystery objects can be explained by science or natural phenomena.
It has received 452 reported sightings from around Japan and abroad in the past year.
The lab confirmed that in 149 of the cases, the images or videos were not altered.
It determined an “extremely high probability” that the two photos and two video clips uploaded on the website showed UFOs.
Read the entire article HERE