The story of the hollow ship, or the Utsuro-Bune in Japanese, quickly spread around the country. And it was eventually written down in three separate accounts that survive to this day. Even at the time, people around the country wondered where the ship had come from. But in 1844, one man thought he had found the answer. Kyokutei Bakin, a well-respected Japanese writer, wrote about a trip to Russia he had recently taken. And he reported that many of the things he saw there were similar to the story of the hollow ship.
For instance, many of the women in Russia had red hair, just as the woman in the hollow ship did. And many of the women in Eastern Russia used powder to color their hair white, which might explain why the woman in the hollow ship had white streaks in her hair. He also mentioned that the mysterious symbols that were supposed to have been on the inside of the ship were similar to symbols he had seen on the side of British whaling ships in Russia. But he also suggested that the symbols might not have actually existed.
To Bakin, the best explanation was that the ship had come from Russia, and the woman inside was a Russian woman who had been exiled for some reason. And he believed that some of the more fantastic details might have been exaggerated, or that popular illustrations of the ship didn’t match the eyewitness accounts. But not everyone accepted Bakin’s explanation, even at the time. And as time went on, other people began to suggest their own explanations for the enduring mystery of the hollow ship. And some were certainly a bit more believable than others.
In the mid 20th-century, Japanese historian Yanagida Kunio began his own study of the hollow ship legend. And he decided that the ship was probably from Japan if it existed at all. He pointed out that round ships were fairly common in Japan, although obviously not with some of the more exotic details of the Utsuro-Bune. But there have also been legends for centuries in Japan of people finding mysterious ships, usually with someone inside. According to Kunio, the Utsuro-Bune story probably reflected these earlier stories, with the extra details about metal plates and glass windows added to make it more believable that the ship could survive out in the ocean.
For instance, there’s a story dating back all the way to the 7th century that has a lot of similarities to the Utsoru Bune. In this story, a fisherman finds a Chinese princess adrift at sea inside a hollow ship. The girl was raised in Japan and eventually married a Japanese prince to become the mythical founder of an imperial dynasty. In fact, she’s still venerated at a shrine in the country. But many people see the story of the Utsuro-Bune differently. To them, the explanation is much more other-worldly, even extra-terrestrial.