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Pink Tentacle

The Iwase Bunko Library has in its possession a document entitled Hyouryuukishuu (”Tales of Castaways”), which was printed during the late Edo period (1603-1868).

The document recounts the stories of Japanese sailors who find themselves in foreign lands after becoming lost at sea, as well as castaway foreigners washed ashore on the beaches of Japan. To the Japanese people, who at the time had been living in a prolonged period of national isolation, these exotic tales must have seemed very fantastic.