Case file · Folklore / legend
Kaguya-hime, the princess from the moon
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (around 900) tells of a girl found inside a glowing bamboo stalk who is taken back to the moon by a heavenly host; the elixir she left was burned on top of Mount Fuji.
900 CE · 35.36, 138.73 · status: legend
The account
It is Japan's oldest surviving prose narrative. Modern 'ancient astronaut' writers read the moon people and their flying carriage as visitors from space.
The sceptical view
The tale is literature drawing on Chinese and Buddhist motifs of celestial beings; the space-visitor reading is a modern projection.