[HN Gopher] Utsuro-Bune
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       Utsuro-Bune
        
       Author : ekianjo
       Score  : 93 points
       Date   : 2021-04-29 11:51 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | sgt101 wrote:
       | I love the thing about "and then the fishermen returned her and
       | her boat to the ocean"... That's pretty mean of them!
        
         | trhway wrote:
         | my understanding that during time of shogun the foreigners were
         | just executed, so it is kind of merciful to just let go.
        
           | krapp wrote:
           | As far as I know, that was only for one specific period in
           | time (the Sakoku period[0].)
           | 
           | [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakoku
        
       | NiceWayToDoIT wrote:
       | Hmmmm "probably time traveling alien from the hollow earth", :P
        
       | alfl wrote:
       | I'm not saying it was aliens... but it was aliens. /s
        
         | meepmorp wrote:
         | True in a sense, if the woman in the boat wasn't from Japan.
        
       | reportgunner wrote:
       | > _...The woman had red hair and eyebrows,..._
       | 
       | Was it Leelo Dallas ?
        
       | erk__ wrote:
       | Sounds a bit like the legend of King Skjoldr, who was a Danish
       | King who came to the shore as a small child in a boat with no
       | other on it on a shild (hence the name.)
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skj%C3%B6ldr
        
         | klyrs wrote:
         | Like Moses, too. Bit of a theme going here. Only, she was an
         | adult already; it's curious that she was presumed royalty like
         | the other two. Perhaps she started her journey as a baby, like
         | Skjoldr and Moses, but people just kept putting a little food
         | in and sending her on her way.
        
           | bemmu wrote:
           | Also Momotaro
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momotar%C5%8D#Story
        
       | JasonFruit wrote:
       | I wonder if a corrach might explain the description. I've never
       | seen one that was circular, but many have a broader beam than
       | many boats, and an Irish woman would account for the red hair.
        
       | bennyp101 wrote:
       | Always interests me how legends and stories like this are passed
       | around, and how much changed since the original, but also what
       | /really/ happened for the story to take form.
        
       | fnord77 wrote:
       | clearly a circular lifeboat, sent back in time somehow
       | 
       | https://i.imgur.com/agjbBsB.png
        
       | asaph wrote:
       | Occam's Razor. It was most likely a lost human from a distant
       | land, speaking another language, traveling in an exotic looking
       | vessel. This is a simpler explanation than invoking
       | extraterrestrial life.
        
         | snypher wrote:
         | If we define 'alien' as humanoid traveler from distant land,
         | foreign language and exotic vehicle, then we're most of the way
         | there :)
        
           | Swizec wrote:
           | My US visa says "alien" so "visitor from distant land
           | speaking an odd language" sounds about right
           | 
           | -\\_(tsu)_/-
        
         | benbreen wrote:
         | Very much agree that the UFO thing is a red herring. But
         | perhaps Occam's Razor actually points to an even simpler
         | explanation, that of it being a reoccurring mythological trope
         | that was repackaged as an historical event.
         | 
         | That said, I would love if it actually were the case that a
         | mysterious woman from, say, the Dutch East Indies -- to make up
         | a random, semi-plausible example -- really did wash ashore in a
         | Japanese fishing village. Sounds like a sequel to "The Thousand
         | Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" (awesome book by the way).
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-29 23:03 UTC)