Overview
- Archaeologists excavated Ship No. 3 in Imari Bay near Takashima Island, a wreck first located in 2023 by acoustic seabed scanning and buried about 65 feet down under sediment.
- Recovered items include a short sword still in its scabbard, bundled arrows, engraved metal chopsticks, helmets, quivers, stone cannonballs, bronze Buddhist statues, anchors, mirrors, and everyday utensils.
- Soil lifted from above the hull preserved organic remains such as fish bones from crew meals, leather, wood, lacquer, and tool fragments, offering direct clues to life aboard the vessel.
- Timber dating points to wood felled in 1253, construction traits match Zhejiang shipyards, and ceramics align with Jiangsu production, linking the vessel to the southern China Jiangnan Army.
- Researchers are conserving artifacts in Japanese museums and continuing analysis, noting that only three wrecks have been found from a 4,400-ship invasion force that a typhoon, later called a kamikaze or divine wind, devastated in 1281.