Three different Japanese texts of the early 19th century refer to a “hollow ship” that arrived on a local beach in 1803. A white-skinned young woman emerged, but fishermen found that she couldn’t communicate in Japanese, so they returned her to the vessel, which drifted back to sea.
Although it reads similar to a folktale, it is an oddly specific one — the texts give dates (Feb. 22 or March 24) and give the dimensions of the craft (3.3 meters high, 5.4 meters wide), which was shaped like a rice pot or incense burner fitted with small windows. Reportedly the woman carried a small box that no one was allowed to touch.
Unfortunately, the place names mentioned appear to be fictitious. So most likely the story is merely an expression of the insularity of the Edo period. One thing the ship was not was a UFO — it never left the water, but simply floated away.
