Urashima Tarō

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 501 CE–1000 CE

Country or Culture: Japan

Genre: Folktale

PLOT SUMMARY

One day in spring, the young fisherman Urashima Tarō (sometimes referred to as Urashimako) sets out to fish in the sea from his small boat. He waits all day but does not catch any fish. Suddenly, he catches a turtle. Knowing that turtles are considered sacred creatures, he releases it back into the water.

After failing to catch any fish, Urashima falls asleep in his boat. He is awakened by the daughter of the dragon god, who has the body of a beautiful young woman. She reveals that she had been the turtle that Urashima released. Out of gratitude, the daughter of the dragon invites Urashima to come live with her in her father’s underwater castle, where she will become his wife. Overjoyed and enticed by her great beauty, Urashima agrees. The dragon god’s daughter summons a huge turtle. On its back, they ride to the dragon god’s palace, where they live happily together for some time.

Eventually, however, Urashima becomes homesick. He asks the dragon god’s daughter to let him return to his village, look at his parents, and return right away to her. Though she is saddened by Urashima’s request, she agrees to it, giving him a casket that will protect him but that he must never open.

Urashima and the dragon god’s daughter part, and Urashima is transported to his village. There, he feels very alienated. The villagers have strange features and dress strangely. His father’s dwelling no longer exists, and even the fields of his childhood have gone. Believing he had been away for only three years, Urashima is puzzled by the many ways in which the village changed during his absence.

Finally, Urashima encounters an old man. The old man states that when he was a boy, his father told him that Urashima’s parents died of grief over the death of their son, who was deemed lost at sea. Since that time, four hundred years have passed. Urashima realizes he has lived for centuries in a fairyland. He longs to return to his wife, but not knowing how to return to the dragon god’s palace, he sits on the shore despondently and waits for the arrival of the turtle. The turtle never comes.

In agony, Urashima remembers the casket the dragon god’s daughter gave him. Ignoring her warning not to open it, he begins to unravel the string of silk that binds it shut. Suddenly, a white cloud emerges from the box. As it rises into the sky, four hundred years catch up with Urashima in a moment, and the fisherman rapidly ages and dies.

SIGNIFICANCE

The core of the narrative of Urashima Tarō was first transcribed in about 713 CE in Tango Province, part of contemporary Japan’s Kyoto Prefecture. This text survives in a fragment from Tango fudoki itsubun (Local records of Tango Province), which refers to Urashima by the name Shima no Ko. The story of Urashima was later included in Japan’s early chronicle Nihon shoki (720; Nihongi, 1896), edited by Prince Toneri. Nihon shoki identifies Urashima’s marriage to the dragon god’s daughter as a historical event that took place in the autumn of 478 CE. In this version, Urashima goes down into the sea to live with his wife and never returns

Another eighth-century version of the story of Urashima is found in the poem “Urashima of Mizunoé,” written by Japanese poet Takahashi no Mushimaro and collected in the anthology Manyōshū (ca. 759 CE; The Manyōshū, 1965). The poet was particularly interested in collecting local folktales and myths and rendering them in poetic form. This version also includes Urashima’s return to his village and his death from sudden old age after he foolishly opens the magic box.

The folktale was later translated into English and published in various collections of Japanese folklore, including Alexander Otto and Theodore S. Holbrooke’s Mythological Japan (1902), F. Hadland Davis’s Myths and Legends of Japan (1900), and Donna Rosenberg’s Folklore, Myths, and Legends (1996). American folklorists often compare the tale of Urashima to American writer Washington Irving’s 1819 story “Rip Van Winkle,” in which the titular character falls asleep in the forest and wakes twenty years later.

In Japan, the tale of Urashima has enjoyed enduring popularity. Statues of Urashima riding the turtle, sometimes as old man, are found in many coastal Japanese cities, and a shrine dedicated to the fisherman is a popular tourist destination in Kyoto Prefecture. Part of the tale’s attraction comes from traditional Japanese reverence of the sea turtle, considered a symbol of longevity and good luck. Drifting algae on the shells of old sea turtles are seen as resembling the long beard of an old man. Occasionally, sea turtles that come on land are offered gifts of sake in appreciation for the good fortune they bring.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aston, William George. Nihongi. London, 1896. Print.

Davis, F. Hadland. “Urashima.” Myths and Legends of Japan. New York: Crowell, 1912. 323–28. Print.

Keene, Donald, trans. “Urashima of Mizunoé.” The Manyōshū. New York: Columbia UP, 1965. 216–18. Print.

Otto, Alexander F., and Theodore S. Holbrooke. “Urashima (The Japanese Rip Van Winkle).” Mythological Japan. Philadelphia: Drexel Biddle, 1902. 28–29. Print.

Rosenberg, Donna. “Taro Urashima, the Young Fisherman.” Folklore, Myths, and Legends: A World Perspective. Chicago: NTC, 1997. 421–31. Print.