The phenomenon in which a person suddenly disappears, as if abducted by someone, for unknown reasons or causes, is called "spiriting away".
In some cases, the disappeared person is never found, and in other cases, they return just as abruptly one day.
However, even if the person returns, they reportedly have no memory of the time they were spirited away.
The Edo period book "Earmuffs" tells the following story.
In the 8th year of the Kan'ei Era, the son of a carpenter, aged around 18-19, disappeared while on his way to Kasai. Despite the efforts of his relatives and neighbors, his whereabouts remained completely unknown.
Later, however, the young man was found at a shrine in Enoshima. The youth had no recollection of what happened after he left for Kasai, and did not even know where he was now. Furthermore, the carpenter's younger brother also disappeared when he was 18-19 years old, but he was never found.
Similarly, in Melbourne, Australia, in the year 1900, four girls and a teacher were on their way from school to a picnic when they suddenly went missing.
A week later, one of the missing persons was found, but he had no memory of the time he was missing, and the rest of the missing persons were never found. This event was made into a movie and became famous worldwide.
In 13th century Germany, 130 children were kidnapped by a traveling man and were never found despite the efforts of the adults who followed them. This is a reality known around the world as the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
Such incidents are said to have occurred frequently in Japan until the 1950s.
In Europe, too, there have been incidents of children going missing and suddenly returning without any memory of their disappearance. They were called "changelings" and were thought to be the work of fairies. [The original Japanese seems to call both the disappearances and the children "changelings".]
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