Urashima Tarō
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is the protagonist of a Japanese
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
(''otogi banashi''), who in a typical modern version is a
fisherman A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or rec ...
rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (
Ryūgū-jō or is the supernatural undersea palace of Ryūjin or Dragon God in Japanese tradition. It is best known as the place in fairytale where Urashima Tarō was invited after saving a turtle, where he was entertained by the Dragon God's princess Oto ...
) beneath the sea. There he is entertained by the princess
Otohime Oto-hime or Otohime ( ja, 乙姫), in the Japanese folktale of ''Urashima Tarō'', is the princess of the undersea palace Ryūgū-jō or is the supernatural undersea palace of Ryūjin or Dragon God in Japanese tradition. It is best known as ...
as a reward. He spends what he believes to be several days with the princess, but when he returns to his home village, he discovers he has been gone for at least 100 years. When he opens the forbidden jewelled box (
tamatebako A "jeweled hand box", "jewel box", "jeweled box", "treasure box", "casket", etc., is the name of a mysterious box that in the Japanese folk tale "Urashima Tarō", is a parting gift that the fisherman Urashima Tarō receives from mistress of the s ...
), given to him by Otohime on his departure, he turns into an old man. The tale originates from the legend of Urashimako (Urashima no ko or Ura no Shimako) recorded in various pieces of literature dating to the 8th century, such as the ''
Fudoki are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and ...
'' for
Tango Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichi ...
, '' Nihon Shoki'', and the '' Man'yōshū''. During the
Muromachi The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
to
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
s, versions of ''
Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who in a typical modern version is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There he is entertained ...
'' appeared in storybook form called the '' Otogizōshi'', made into finely painted picture scrolls and picture books or mass-printed copies. These texts vary considerably, and in some, the story ends with Urashima Tarō transforming into a crane. Some iconic elements in the modern version are relatively recent. The portrayal of him riding a turtle dates only to the early 18th century, and while he is carried underwater to the Dragon Palace in modern tellings, he rides a boat to the princess's world called Hōrai in older versions.


Folktale or fairy tale

The Urashima Tarō tale familiar to most Japanese follows the storyline of children's tale author in the
Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
. A condensed version of Sazanami's retelling then appeared in , Japan's nationally designated textbook for elementary school, and became widely read by schoolchildren of the populace. Modern versions of Urashima Tarō, which are generally similar, are demonstrably based on the story from this nationally designated textbook series.


Plot

One day a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō is fishing when he notices a group of children
torturing Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
a small turtle. Tarō saves it and lets it go back to the sea. The next day, a huge turtle approaches him and tells him that the small turtle he had saved is the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea,
Ryūjin Ryūjin ( 龍神), which in some traditions is equivalent to Ōwatatsumi, was the tutelary deity of the sea in Japanese mythology. In many versions Ryūjin had the ability to transform into a human shape. Many believed the god had knowledge on ...
, who wants to see him to thank him. The turtle magically gives Tarō gills and brings him to the bottom of the sea, to the Palace of the Dragon God (
Ryūgū-jō or is the supernatural undersea palace of Ryūjin or Dragon God in Japanese tradition. It is best known as the place in fairytale where Urashima Tarō was invited after saving a turtle, where he was entertained by the Dragon God's princess Oto ...
). There he meets the Emperor and the small turtle, who was now a lovely princess,
Otohime Oto-hime or Otohime ( ja, 乙姫), in the Japanese folktale of ''Urashima Tarō'', is the princess of the undersea palace Ryūgū-jō or is the supernatural undersea palace of Ryūjin or Dragon God in Japanese tradition. It is best known as ...
. The palace had a view to the four seasons, a different one on each side. Tarō stays there with Otohime for three days, but soon wants to go back to his village and see his aging mother, so he requests permission to leave. The princess says she is sorry to see him go, but wishes him well and gives him a mysterious box called ''
tamatebako A "jeweled hand box", "jewel box", "jeweled box", "treasure box", "casket", etc., is the name of a mysterious box that in the Japanese folk tale "Urashima Tarō", is a parting gift that the fisherman Urashima Tarō receives from mistress of the s ...
'' which will protect him from harm but which she tells him never to open. Tarō grabs the box, jumps on the back of the same turtle that had brought him there, and soon is at the seashore. When he goes home, everything has changed. His home is gone, his mother has vanished, and the people he knew are nowhere to be seen. He asks if anybody knows a man called Urashima Tarō. They answer that they had heard someone of that name had vanished at sea long ago. He discovers that 300 years have passed since the day he left for the bottom of the sea. Struck by grief, he absent-mindedly opens the box the princess had given him, from which bursts forth a cloud of white smoke. He is suddenly aged, his beard long and white, and his back bent. From the sea comes the sad, sweet voice of the princess: "I told you not to open that box. In it was your old age ...".


Commonly known version

A summary of the Urashima tale from one of the nationalized textbooks () will be given below. The base text used will be ''Urashima Tarō'' (うらしま太郎), from the 3rd edition of the or "national language reader", a widely familiar textbook used during the 1918–1932 period. An English translation has been provided in Yoshiko Holmes's thesis. The story remained as one of the dozen tales included in the 4th edition of national language reader textbooks also known as used from 1933–ca. 1940, thus continuing to enjoy wide recognition; for this reason ''Urashima'' could be considered one of the core stories of the so-called Japanese "national fairy tales".


School song

A number of renditions exist, where they are set to music. Among the most popular is the school song "Urashima Tarō" (浦島太郎) of 1911 which begins with the line "''Mukashi, mukashi Urashima wa, tasuketa kame ni tsurerarete'' (Long long ago was Urashima, by the turtle he rescued taken to the sea)", printed in the (1911). This song's author was long relegated to anonymity, but the lyricist is now considered to be . Another school song "Urashima Tarō" (うらしまたろう, lyrics by and music by ) appeared in the ''Yōnen shōka'' (1900). Although written in stilted
classical language A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large and ancient body of written literature. Classical languages are typically dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the ...
, Miura considered this version the more familiar.


Otogizōshi

Long before the versions in 19th century textbooks, there had been the ''
otogi-zōshi are a group of about 350 Japanese prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). These illustrated short stories, which remain unattributed, together form one of the representative literary genres of the Japanese med ...
'' versions from the
Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
. Conventionally, commentators using the term ''otogizōshi'' are referring by default to the text found in the ''Otogi Bunko'' (or "Companion Library"), since it was printed and widely disseminated.


Otogi Bunko

In the ''Otogi Bunko'' (or "Companion Library") version, a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō catches a turtle on his fishing line and releases it. The next day, Urashima encounters a boat with a woman on it wishing to be escorted home. She does not identify herself, although she is the transformation of the turtle that was spared. When Urashima rows her boat to her magnificent residence, she proposes that they marry. The residence is the Dragon Palace, and on the four sides of the palace, each gardenscape is in a different season. Urashima decides to return to his home after three years and is given a in parting. He arrives in his hometown to find it desolate, and discovers 700 years have passed since he last left it. He cannot restrain his temptation to open the box which he was cautioned not to open, whereupon three wisps of purple cloud appear and turn him into an old man. It ends with Urashima Tarō transforming into a crane, and his wife reverting to the form of a turtle, the two thereafter revered as ''
myōjin Myōjin (明神 'shining deity', 'illuminating deity', or 'apparent deity') or Daimyōjin (大明神 'great shining/apparent deity') was a title historically applied to Japanese (Shinto) deities (''kami'') and, by metonymy, their shrines. The ...
'' (
Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
deities). (text image)


Variants and groups

There are over 50 texts of the Urashima Tarō ''otogi-zōshi'' extant. These variants fall into four broad groups, clustered by their similarity. The ''Otogi Bunko'' text belongs to Group IV.


Group closest to modern version

The ''Otogi Bunko'' version, despite its conventional status as the type text, differs considerably from the typical children's storybook published in the modern day: the protagonist neither purchases the turtle from others to save it, nor rides the turtle. Group I texts are more similar to the modern version, as it contains the element of Urashima purchasing the turtle to save it. Additionally, this group explicitly gives the princess's name as Otomime (or "Kame-no-Otohime") whereas she remains unnamed in the ''Otogi Bunko'' group. And the expression ''
tamatebako A "jeweled hand box", "jewel box", "jeweled box", "treasure box", "casket", etc., is the name of a mysterious box that in the Japanese folk tale "Urashima Tarō", is a parting gift that the fisherman Urashima Tarō receives from mistress of the s ...
'' or "jeweled hand-box" familiar to modern readers is also seen in the main text of Group I, and not the other groups (the interpolated poem excepted). The picture scroll in the collection of the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
, Oxford University also belongs to Group I. Hayashi Kouhei has highlighted the characteristics of the Group I texts as follows: 1) Urashima purchases a turtle caught by others, 2) Boat arrives to convey him to Horai, 3) The four seasons assuage rather than provoke his homesickness, 4) The villagers in recognition of his longevity give him proper
cremation Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a Cadaver, dead body through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India ...
, 5) Smoke from ''
tamatebako A "jeweled hand box", "jewel box", "jeweled box", "treasure box", "casket", etc., is the name of a mysterious box that in the Japanese folk tale "Urashima Tarō", is a parting gift that the fisherman Urashima Tarō receives from mistress of the s ...
'' reach Horai and Princess Otohime is grief-stricken.


Other modern versions


Seki's version in English

The tale of "Urashima Taro" in
Keigo Seki was a Japanese folklorist. He was joined a group under Yanagita Kunio, but often came to different conclusions regarding the same folktales. Along with collecting and compiling folktales, Seki also arranged them into a series of categories. This ...
's anthology (translated into English 1963), was a version told in
Nakatado District, Kagawa is a district located in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. Due to the district government enforcement in 1899, the district was formed when the Naka and Tado Districts merged. The district contains 3 towns: Kotohira (琴平町), Tadotsu (多度 ...
. In this variant, Urashima is localized as being from "Kitamae Oshima". It incorporates both the motif of the turtle being caught while fishing, and that of Urashima transforming into a crane at the end, which are found in the ''Otogizōshi''. Here, it was a , that is to say, a stacked box that was given to Urashima. When he opened the lid, the first box (on the top) contained a crane's feather, and the second a puff of white smoke that turned him into an old man, and the third a mirror, which made him see for himself that he had suddenly grown old. The feather from the first box then attached itself to his back, and Urashima flew up to the sky, encircling his mother's grave.


Versions retold in English

The story entitled "The Fisher-boy Urashima" (1886) retold by Basil Hall Chamberlain, was number 8 in the "Japanese Fairy Tale Series", printed by
Hasegawa Takejirō was an innovative Japanese publisher specializing in books in European languages on Japanese subjects. Hasegawa employed leading foreign residents as translators and noted Japanese artists as illustrators, and became a leading purveyor of export ...
, the issuer of many such ''chirimen-bon'' or "crepe-paper books". Although the illustrations are not credited in the publication, they have been attributed to Kobayashi Eitaku. There is no single base text in Japanese identifiable, although it has been conjectured that Chamberlain adapted from "a popular version" and not straying far from it except adding explanatory or instructive passages for young readers. Others have determined it must have been a composite consisting of older traditions from the '' Nihon Shoki'' and '' Man'yōshū'', combined with the near-modern Otogizōshi storybook plot, Chamberlain preferring to incorporate details from the ancient texts, while eschewing embellishment from the Otogizōshi. Chamberlain has also published a versified version of the tale. In Chamberlain's fairytale version, "Urashima" (not "Tarō") catches a tortoise (''
sic The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...
'') while fishing on his boat, and releases it. The tortoise reappears in her true form as the Sea-God's daughter, and invites him to the Dragon Palace. There the couple are married and live happily for 3 years, but Urashima misses seeing his parents and his brothers. The Dragon Princess reluctantly allows him to leave, giving him a box he is instructed never to open, for it will cause him never to be able to return to the palace. When he returns to his home village, his absence turns out to have been 400 years. Urashima now wishes to go back to the Dragon Palace but he does not know the means, and opens the box. He turns into a white-haired, wrinkled old man and dies. The ending by death concurs with older tradition, and not the ''otogi-zōshi'' storybook. Lafcadio Hearn, who lived in Japan and translated or adapted many ghost stories from the country, rewrote the Urashima tale under the title '' The Dream of a Summer Day'' in the late 19th century, working off of a copy of Chamberlain's "Japanese Fairy Tale Series" version.


Variations

As always with folklore, there are many different versions of this story. There are other versions that add a further epilogue explaining the subsequent fate of Urashima Tarō after he turns into an old man. In one, he falls to dust and dies, in another, he transforms into a crane and flies up to the sky. In another, he grows gills and leaps into the sea, whereby he regains his youth. In another version Urashima ate a magic pill that gave him the ability to breathe underwater. In another version, he is swept away by a storm before he can rescue the turtle.


History

The full name Urashima Tarō was not given to the character until the 15th century (the
Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
), first appearing in a genre of illustrated popular fiction known as '' otogizōshi'', and in the
kyōgen is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. It developed alongside '' Noh'', was performed along with ''Noh'' as an intermission of sorts between ''Noh'' acts on the same stage, and retains close links to ''Noh'' in the modern day; therefo ...
play adaptation. The story itself can be found in much older sources, dating to the 8th century (the
Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...
), where the protagonist is styled either "Urashima no ko" or "Ura (no) Shimako", attested in earlier sources such as the ''
Fudoki are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and ...
'' for
Tango Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichi ...
() that survived in excerpts, the '' Man'yōshū'' and the '' Nihon Shoki''. More recent editions of these texts tend to favor the "Ura (no) Shimako" reading, although some consider this debatable. It has also been proposed that it was not until the Heian Period that the misreading "Urashima (no) ko" became current, because names with the suffix ''-ko'' ("child") came to be regarded as female, even though it once applied to either gender. When the texts were written for the
kyōgen is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. It developed alongside '' Noh'', was performed along with ''Noh'' as an intermission of sorts between ''Noh'' acts on the same stage, and retains close links to ''Noh'' in the modern day; therefo ...
theatre, the character's name underwent further change to Urashima Tarō, with ''-tarō'' ("great youth") being a common suffix in male names. Or perhaps the name was borrowed from who is a
stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of st ...
in kyōgen.


Dragon Palace

The '' Man'yōshū'' ballad mentions not only the woman of the Immortal Land, but her father as the Sea God (
Watatsumi , also pronounced Wadatsumi, is a legendary ''kami'' (神, god; deity; spirit), Japanese dragon and tutelary water deity in Japanese mythology. is believed to be another name for the sea deity Ryūjin (龍神, Dragon God) and also for the , wh ...
). Although this Sea God cannot be automatically equated with the Dragon God or Dragon King, due to the influence of the Chinese mythology of Nine Offspring of the Dragon in the
Tang period The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
, it has been speculated that the turtle princess must have been the Dragon King's daughter in even those early versions. The otherworld Urashima visited was not the "Dragon Palace" ( Ryūgū) until the ''
otogi-zōshi are a group of about 350 Japanese prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). These illustrated short stories, which remain unattributed, together form one of the representative literary genres of the Japanese med ...
'' versions appeared. The heroine then became Otohime, the younger daughter of the Dragon King.


Relative dates

As for the relative dating of these texts, an argument has been advanced that places the ''Fudoki'' version as the oldest. The argument dates the ''Tango fudoki'' to shortly after 715, but the compilers refer to an earlier record by , which was identical in content. It has even been suggested by Shūichi Katō that this Umakai originally adapted this tale into Japanese from a similar Chinese tale.


Tango Fudoki

In this version, the protagonist is referred to as "Urashimako of Mizunoe" (or "Urashimako of in Yosa-gun". Urashimako catches a five-coloured turtle and keeps it in his boat, and during his sleep, the creature transforms into a beautiful woman. She identifies herself as someone from the household of immortals, and proposes to take him to the place of immortals, which may be Horaisan (
Mount Penglai Penglai () is a legendary land of Chinese mythology. It is known in Japanese mythology as Hōrai. McCullough, Helen. ''Classical Japanese Prose'', p. 570. Stanford Univ. Press, 1990. . Location According to the ''Classic of Mountains and Seas ...
) or "
Tokoyo Tokoyo or O-Tokoyo is the female protagonist of a supposed Japanese folk story found in Richard Gordon Smith's 1918 book ''Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan''. Set in the Oki Islands located in the Sea of Japan, the story portrays Tokoyo as ...
-no-kuni" ("Timeless Land" or "Land of Eternity"). They are greeted by first seven, then eight children, who represent the constellations of
Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance ...
and
Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological characters named Taurus * '' Bos tauru ...
(or more precisely the
Hyades Hyades may refer to: * Hyades (band) *Hyades (mythology) *Hyades (star cluster) The Hyades (; Greek Ὑάδες, also known as Caldwell 41, Collinder 50, or Melotte 25) is the nearest open cluster and one of the best-studied star clusters. Loca ...
cluster) who address him as the "husband of Kame Hime (Princess Turtle)". The remainder is mostly the same as the typical tale. After three years, the man develops a longing for his parents and homeland. The princess is saddened, but imparts him with a , forbidding him to open it if he wished ever to return to her. He returns and finds no trace of his home or family, except that he is remembered as a man who disappeared long ago, and would be over three hundred years old if still alive. Forgetting the promise, he opens the box, whereupon a beautiful figure like a fragrant orchid is carried away to the heavens with the clouds, and he realizes he can never meet the princess again. Still, the couple are somehow (supernaturally) able to exchange poems. These poems are recorded in phonetic ''
man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this ...
''.


''Nihon Shoki''

In the '' Nihon Shoki'', Urashimako of Mizunoe is mentioned in the entry for Autumn, 7th month the 22nd year of reign of
Emperor Yūryaku (418 - 8 September 479) was the 21st legendary Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 雄略天皇 (21) retrieved 2013-8-28. according to the traditional order of succession. He is remembered as a patron of sericulture.Nippon ...
. Aston's translation assigns this the year 478 A.D. The entry states that Urashimako (child Urashima, child of Urashima, etc.) of Mizunoe while fishing on a boat, caught a turtle which transformed into a woman. They went into the sea, and reached Mount Hōrai (glossed in ''
kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most p ...
'' as
Tokoyo Tokoyo or O-Tokoyo is the female protagonist of a supposed Japanese folk story found in Richard Gordon Smith's 1918 book ''Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan''. Set in the Oki Islands located in the Sea of Japan, the story portrays Tokoyo as ...
), where they saw . As to the phrase that they go "into the sea" implies, the Mount Hōrai as conceived here may be a submarine island, a suggestion made by Japanese literature professor .


Manyoshu

A poem reflecting upon the legend of Urashima of Mizunoe occurs in the '' Man'yōshū''. The piece is ascribed to
Takahashi no Mushimaro was a Japanese poet of the early 8th century. He was a contemporary of Yamabe no Akahito, Yamanoue no Okura and Ōtomo no Tabito, and was known for his poems on travel and a collection of local myths and legends.Brower, Robert H. and Earl Min ...
. Early translations include the prose rendition by Aston, and the ballad-form by Chamberlain. In this version, the woman of the Immortal Land (
Tokoyo Tokoyo or O-Tokoyo is the female protagonist of a supposed Japanese folk story found in Richard Gordon Smith's 1918 book ''Ancient Tales and Folk-Lore of Japan''. Set in the Oki Islands located in the Sea of Japan, the story portrays Tokoyo as ...
) appears as the daughter of the Sea God ( Watatsumi no kami).


Localizations


Yokohama

Basil Hall Chamberlain (1880) indicated the presence of a temple dedicated to Urashima at
Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama is one of the 18 wards of the city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the ward had an estimated population of 230,401 and a density of 9,650 persons per km2. The total area was 23.88 km2. Geography Kanagawa is located i ...
, which housed several relics such as Urashima's fishing-line, and the casket (tamatebako). But when
Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow, (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist. Satow is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served, where he was known as . He was a key fig ...
went there with Chamberlain on 2 May 1880, there was nothing left to see except the statue of
Kannon Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She w ...
(Kanzeon), the goddess of mercy. Neither recorded the name to the temple, but Japanese sources write that the so-called Urashima-dera (Urashima Temple) used to be , until it burned down in 1868, and the temple, including the Kannon goddess statue got translated to in 1872. The old Urashima-dera sat on a mountain top. There is a circulating pamphlet which shows the view of the harbor from this vantage point, depicting the fleet of Black Ships led by Commodore Perry's fleet in 1852–1854. Local legend also claims native ties to Urashima Tarō, claiming that his father Urashima Tayū was originally from somewhere not far from Yokohama, in
Miura District, Kanagawa is a district located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2009, the district has an estimated population of 32,333 and a density of 1,900 persons per km2. The total area is 17.06 km2. It currently consists of only one town, Hayama. The ci ...
in Sagami Province. But the father moved to
Tango Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyoto Prefecture. Tango bordered on Tanba to the south, Tajima to the west, and Wakasa to the east. Its abbreviated form name was . It was also referred to as or . In terms of the Gokishichi ...
. This legend adds that when Urashima Tarō returned from the Dragon Place, he was guided to seek his parents' grave in "Shirahata, Musashi Province" (in today's Yokohama). He finally found the grave, thanks to Princess Oto-hime who lit up an illuminating light on a pine branch. Tarō built a hut to live here, housing the goddess statue from the Dragon Palace. The hut later became Kampuku-ji temple.


Okinawa

Chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...
noted the theory that the Dragon Palace might be a romanticized notion of Okinawa, since " Ryūgū" (Dragon Palace) and
Ryūkyū The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara, Amami Islands, Amami, Okinawa Islands, Okinawa, and Sakis ...
(Okinawa) are near
homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s. Recorded in of the 18th century, Tale 103 "A person of Yonaha village visits the Dragon Palace" is considered analogous to Urashima Tarō. In it, a certain man of Yonaha village in Haebaru finds a lock of black hair and returns it to a beautiful maiden. She leads him to the Dragon Palace. Three months pass and the man wishes to return, but the goddess reveals 33 generations have already passed in his absence. The man receives a folded-up piece of paper he is forbidden from unwrapping, but he opens this packet and a piece of white hair clings to him, turning him into an old man, and he dies. He was enshrined at the place which was named Usani-daki, because the man had "sat and reposed" (''usani'') in his despair. Similar tales are found on
Miyako-jima is the largest and the most populous island among the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Miyako Island is administered as part of the City of Miyakojima, which includes not only Miyako Island, but also five other populated island ...
and other places.
Yanagita Kunio Kunio Yanagita (柳田 國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...
felt that the notion of the Dragon Palace shared its origin with the concept of Niruya () in the southerly islands of Japan. ''Irō setsuden'' also records a similar tale, number 42, about , which describes a man who, bidden by a mysterious woman appeared before him, carried a large turtle to his home, which bit and gave him a terrible wound so that he was buried. But he turned out not to have died a mortals death, and lived on.


Kiso, Nagano

Local legend has it that Urashima Tarō once dwelled in the mountains of Kiso,
Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...
. This legend originated in near-modern times, from the late
Muromachi The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
to
Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
s. Although a contrived piece of fiction, the old-style '' jōruri'' situates its story in the vicinity of this local legend, namely
Agematsu-juku was the thirty-eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, as well as the sixth of eleven stations on the Kisoji. It is located in the present-day town of Agematsu, in the Kiso District of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. From the present-day J ...
. Urashima Tarō appears here as a child born after a local couple prays to Togakushi
Myōjin Myōjin (明神 'shining deity', 'illuminating deity', or 'apparent deity') or Daimyōjin (大明神 'great shining/apparent deity') was a title historically applied to Japanese (Shinto) deities (''kami'') and, by metonymy, their shrines. The ...
. He and Tamayori-hime fall in love. She is very much a mortal, but after she commits suicide in Ina River (tributary of Kiso River), she becomes transformed into a supernatural being serving the Dragon Palace. A scale cloak lets her transform into a turtle, in which guise, she is reunited with Urashima Tarō who is fishing in Ina River. Note the "catching of the turtle" scene is transposed from ocean to a river in the mountains.


Comparative mythology

The story bears varying degrees of similarity to folktales from other cultures. ''
Rip Van Winkle "Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls aslee ...
'' is the foremost familiar example, although strictly speaking this cannot be called a "folktale", since it is a fictional work by
Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
loosely based on folklore. Nevertheless, Urashima has been labeled the "Japanese Rip van Winkle", even in academic folkloristic literature. "Urashima" is also a Japanese metaphor similar to "Rip Van Winkle" for someone who feels lost in a world that has changed in their absence. This pair of tales may not be the closest matching among the motif group. Writing in the 19th century, Lafcadio Hearn suggested that Irving wrote another piece called "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities", based on Portuguese tradition, which bore an even stronger resemblance to Urashima. Japanese art collector
William Anderson William Anderson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * William Anderson (artist) (1757–1837), painter of marine and historical paintings * William Anderson (theatre) (1868–1940), Australian stage entrepreneur * William Anderson (1911–1986), ...
also wrote that a certain Chinese tale was closer to "Rip Van Winkle" than Urashima was. That Chinese analogue is the anecdote of the woodcutter Wang Zhi, who after watching
immortals Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...
playing a board game discovers many years have passed. The piece is a selection in the or "Accounts of Strange Things", and is also known as the legend of Lankeshan or "Rotten Axe Handle Mountain". Sometimes this Chinese tale is conjectured as a possible actual source for Urashima, but there is lack of consensus among folklorists regarding their interrelationship. Other cognate tales include the Irish legend of
Oisín Oisín ( ), Osian, Ossian ( ), or anglicized as Osheen ( ) was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, a warrior of the Fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the demigod son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and of ...
who met Niamh and spent his life with her in
Tír na nÓg In Irish mythology Tír na nÓg (; "Land of the Young") or Tír na hÓige ("Land of Youth") is one of the names for the Celtic Otherworld, or perhaps for a part of it. Tír na nÓg is best known from the tale of Oisín and Niamh. Other Old Ir ...
, and the Vietnamese legend of Từ Thức, who aids a goddess arrested for plucking a peony flower during a festival. In both these cases, the hero is united with a goddess who dwells in a land beyond the sea. Từ Thức's story is collected in ''
Truyền kỳ mạn lục The ''Truyền kỳ mạn lục'' (傳奇漫錄, "Casual Records of Transmitted Strange Tales") is a 16th-century Vietnamese historical text, in part a collection of legends, by Nguyễn Dữ (阮餘) composed in Chữ Hán. The collection w ...
'' by
Nguyễn Dữ Nguyễn Dữ ( chữ Hán: 阮餘), also called Nguyễn Dữ (阮與), was a 16th-century poet of Vietnam known for the Truyền kỳ mạn lục (傳奇漫錄, ''Collection of Strange Tales'').Patricia M. Pelley ''Postcolonial Vietnam: new hist ...
. The tale of Urashima Taro holds many similarities with tales of the international catalogue
Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU Index) is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies. The ATU Index is the product of a series of revisions and expansions by an international group of scholars: originally composed in German by ...
, grouped under type ATU 681, "The Relativity of Time". A similar story is ''The Marsh King's Daughter'', a literary fairy tale by
Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...
. However, Hiroko Ikeda's Japanese index of folktales lists ''Urashima Taro'' as type 470*, "The Dragon Palace" or "Urashima Taroo".


Commemoration

A shrine on the western coast of the Tango Peninsula in northern Kyoto Prefecture, named Urashima Jinja, contains an old document describing a man, Urashimako, who left his land in 478 A.D. and visited a land where people never die. He returned in 825 A.D. with a
Tamatebako A "jeweled hand box", "jewel box", "jeweled box", "treasure box", "casket", etc., is the name of a mysterious box that in the Japanese folk tale "Urashima Tarō", is a parting gift that the fisherman Urashima Tarō receives from mistress of the s ...
. Ten days later he opened the box, and a cloud of white smoke was released, turning Urashimako into an old man. Later that year, after hearing the story,
Emperor Junna was the 53rd emperor of Japan, Emperor Junna, Ōharano no Nishi no Minenoe Imperial Mausoleum, Imperial Household Agency according to the traditional order of succession. Junna reigned from 823 to 833. Traditional narrative Junna had six empre ...
ordered
Ono no Takamura , also known as , was a Japanese calligrapher and poet of the early Heian period. Life Takamura was a descendant of Ono no Imoko who served as Kenzuishi, and his father was Ono no Minemori. He was the grandfather of Ono no Michikaze, one of the ...
to build a shrine to commemorate Urashimako's strange voyage, and to house the Tamatebako and the spirit of Urashimako.


Adaptations

The animated adaptation ''
Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who in a typical modern version is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There he is entertained ...
'' of the tale, premiered in 1918, is among some of the oldest
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
created in Japan, the same year that Oz author
Ruth Plumly Thompson Ruth Plumly Thompson (27 July 1891 – 6 April 1976) was an American writer of children's stories, best known for writing many novels placed in Oz, the fictional land of L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' ...
adapted it as "Urashima and the Princess of the Sea" for The Philadelphia Public Ledger. The story influenced various works of fiction and a number of films. In 1945, Japanese writer
Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as ''The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and ''No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shiki ...
published ''Otogizōshi'' ("fairytale book"), which includes a much expanded version of the story. Urashima's tale, as the other three included in the ''Otogizōshi'', is used mostly as a platform for Dazai's own thoughts and musings.
Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...
's short story "
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea ''A Fisherman of the Inland Sea'' is a 1994 collection of short stories and novellas by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin. The collection was second in the 1995 Locus Award poll in the collection category.Ekumen The ''Hainish Cycle'' consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is set in a future history in which civilizations of human beings on planets orbiting a number of nearby stars, including wikt:Terra, Terra ( ...
or Hainish universe. The story was adapted in Brazil in the 1960s for use in an advertising campaign by airline
Varig VARIG (acronym for Viação Aérea RIo-Grandense, ''Rio Grandean Airways'') was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990, it was Brazil's leading airline, and virtually its only international one. In 2005, Varig went ...
to promote the first direct flights between
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
and
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. The campaign was produced by Lynxfilm and created by Ruy Perotti. The theme, sung by Rosa Miyake, became famous throughout the country. The
Ultra Q is a tokusatsu science fiction kaiju series made in the tradition of Toho's many tokusatsu sci-fi/horror films. Produced in black and white by Tsuburaya Productions, this is actually the first of the long-running Ultra Series, and was broadc ...
episode title "Grow Up! Little Turtle" is largely based on Urashima Tarō's tale, along with elements of "
The Boy Who Cried Wolf The Boy Who Cried Wolf is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 210 in the Perry Index. From it is derived the English idiom "to cry wolf", defined as "to give a false alarm" in e''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'' and glossed by the ''Oxford ...
" and the original ''
Gamera is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. Debuting in the 1965 film ''Gamera, the Giant Monster'', the character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's ''Godzilla'' film ...
'' film. In it, Tarō is a schoolboy given to making up stories who is trying to grow a turtle to 99cm, at which point he believes it will take him to the Dragon Palace.


See also

*
Tamatebako A "jeweled hand box", "jewel box", "jeweled box", "treasure box", "casket", etc., is the name of a mysterious box that in the Japanese folk tale "Urashima Tarō", is a parting gift that the fisherman Urashima Tarō receives from mistress of the s ...
, an
origami ) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a f ...
cube that causes the aging of Urashima Tarō in some versions of the story. * Lankeshan ji * Yuri's Brush with Magic by Maureen Wartski, a young adult novel that integrates the Urashima Taro myth into narrative. *
Isekai is a Japanese genre of speculative fiction—both portal fantasy and science fiction are included. It includes novels, light novels, films, manga, anime and video games that revolve around a person or people who are transported to and have to ...
, an anime and manga genre that has roots in the Urashima Tarō story. *
Pandora's box Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing physi ...
, a magic box which spread disaster when opened in Greek mythology. *
King asleep in mountain The king asleep in mountain (D 1960.2 in Stith Thompson's motif index system) is a prominent folklore trope found in many folktales and legends. Thompson termed it as the Kyffhäuser type. Some other designations are: king in the mountain, king ...
, several legends of people hidden away in time. *"
Rip Van Winkle "Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls aslee ...
" *''
The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical fiction, philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''Th ...
'' *
Kakudmi Kakudmi (nominative case, stem Kakudmin), sometimes also called Raivata, is a character within Hindu Mythology. Kakudmi was the King of Kusasthali, son of Revata, and father of Revati, who married Balarama. Within Hinduism, his account is giv ...
and
Revati Revati (रेवती) is a goddess featured in Hindu scriptures. She is the daughter of King Kakudmi and the consort of Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna, and one of the Dashavatara. Her account is given within a number of Hindu texts su ...
*Herla *
Oisín Oisín ( ), Osian, Ossian ( ), or anglicized as Osheen ( ) was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, a warrior of the Fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is the demigod son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and of ...
*The Voyage of Bran *Iara (mythology) *Urashima effect, another name for time dilation in the theory of relativity. *Honi ha-M'agel *The Wife from the Dragon Palace


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * *
alt copy
@ Library of Congress * * * * * * * * * * * * ** (reprinted in) * * * (In Japanese and some English) *


Further reading

* McKeon, Midori Yamamoto. "The Transformation of the Urashima Legend: The Influence of Religion on Gender." U.S.-Japan Women's Journal. English Supplement, no. 10 (1996): 45-102. Accessed July 1, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/42772094.


External links

*

(in English)

painted on a wall near Lake Saroma in Hokkaido
''Urashima Tarō''
(in English), from ''Mythological Japan'' (1873)
BYU Special Collections scroll exhibit
featuring a flash presentation of a scroll depicting the story of Urashima Tarō {{DEFAULTSORT:Urashima Taro Fiction about time travel Japanese folklore Japanese fairy tales Japanese legends Portal fantasy ATU 460-499 ATU 650-699