Urashima Tarō

Urashima Tarō, ukiyo-e painting by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1852

is a Japanese fairy tale about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded with a visit to the Ryūgū-jō, the Dragon Palace. There are many different versions of this story.

Story

One day, a fisherman named Urashima Taro was fishing when he noticed a turtle, which appeared to be in trouble. Taro saved the turtle and in return the turtle magically gave Taro gills and brought Taro to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō), deep underwater. The turtle turned out to be the daughter of Ryūgū-jō, a lovely princess. He stayed there with her for a few days, and received a mysterious box from her when he was leaving, which she told him never to open. What he did not realize that time in the Dragon Palace moves an awful lot slower than on land and when he returned 700 years had passed. When he got home he found that all of his family had died long ago. In grief, he opened the box. It revealed itself in a cloud of white smoke, it was his true age, and Urashima Taro aged and died.

Urashima Tarō Media

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  Urashima Tarō and princess of Horai, by Matsuki Heikichi (1899)

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  Urashima Taro encounters children on the beach who are "toying with" a turtle.

  ―Jinjō shōgaku kokugo tokuhon (the 3rd edition of Kokutei tokuhon) (1928)
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  Urashima saves the turtle.

  ―From an Otogizōshi picture scroll in the Bodleian Library collection, late 16th or early 17th century.
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  Mizuenoe no Urashima riding a turtle with flowing tail (mino game). Depiction of him riding a turtle appeared quite late, in the early 18th century.

  —Ogata Gekkō, Gekkō zuihitsu (1887).
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  Keiun-ji, the stele that reads "Ryūgū denrai Urashima Kanzeon Urashima-tera", which used to be at Kampuku-ji.

Related pages

• Rip van Winkle

Other websites

• Urashima Taro Archived 2007-10-02 at the Wayback Machine (in English)