Urashima Tarō

The Urashima Tarō tale familiar to most Japanese follows the storyline of children's tale author in the Meiji period. 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 a small turtle. Tarō saves it and releases it back to the sea. The next day, a huge turtle approaches him and tells him that the small turtle he saved is the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryūjin, 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). There, he meets the Emperor and the small turtle, who is now a lovely princess, Otohime. The palace has a view to the four seasons, one on each side. Tarō stays there with Otohime for three days, but he wants to return to his village and see his aging mother, so he requests permission to leave. The princess says that she is sorry to see him go, but she wishes him well and gives him a mysterious box called tamatebako, which will protect him from harm, but which he must never 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 returns to his village, everything has changed. His home is gone, his mother has vanished, and the people whom he knew are nowhere to be found. He asks whether anyone 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. A cloud of white smoke bursts forth. 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 to c. 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, Miura considered this version the more familiar. == Otogizōshi ==

Long before the versions in 19th century textbooks, there had been the otogi-zōshi versions from the Muromachi period. and his wife reverting to the form of a turtle, the two thereafter revered as myōjin (Shinto deities). 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 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, 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, 5) Smoke from the tamatebako reaches Horai and Princess Otohime is grief-stricken. == Other modern versions ==

Seki's version in English The tale of "Urashima Taro" in Keigo Seki's anthology (translated into English 1963), was a version told in Nakatado District, Kagawa. 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", 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. In another version, Urashima does stay with Otohime and they conceive a child. == History ==

The full name Urashima Tarō was not given to the character until the 15th century (the Muromachi period), first appearing in a genre of illustrated popular fiction known as otogizōshi, and in the kyōgen play adaptation. The story itself can be found in much older sources, dating to the 8th century (the Nara period), where the protagonist is styled either "Urashima no ko" or "Ura (no) Shimako", attested in earlier sources such as the Fudoki for Tango Province () 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 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 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). 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, 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 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) or "Tokoyo-no-kuni" ("Timeless Land" or "Land of Eternity"). They are greeted by first seven, then eight children, who represent the constellations of Pleiades and Taurus (or more precisely the Hyades 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''. ==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. 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 as Tokoyo), 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. Early translations include the prose rendition by Aston, and the ballad-form by Chamberlain. In this version, the woman of the Immortal Land (Tokoyo) appears as the daughter of the Sea God (Watatsumi no kami). ==Localizations==

Yokohama in Sagami Province. But the father moved to Tango Province. 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 noted the theory that the Dragon Palace might be a romanticized notion of Okinawa, since "Ryūgū" (Dragon Palace) and Ryūkyū (Okinawa) are near homophones. == Comparative mythology ==

The story bears varying degrees of similarity to folktales from other cultures. Rip Van Winkle is the foremost familiar example, although strictly speaking this cannot be called a "folktale", since it is a fictional work by Washington Irving loosely based on folklore. 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. == 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. 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 ordered Ono no Takamura 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 of the tale, premiered in 1918, is among some of the oldest anime created in Japan, the same year that Oz author Ruth Plumly Thompson 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 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's short story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" (or "Another Story", 1994) is a reception of the Urashima story set in the Ekumen or Hainish universe. The story was adapted in Brazil in the 1960s for use in an advertising campaign by airline Varig to promote the first direct flights between Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. 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 episode title "Grow Up! Little Turtle" is largely based on Urashima Tarō's tale, along with elements of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and the original Gamera 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 ==