Urashima Taro
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
about a fisherman who rescues a turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō
Ryugu-jo
In Japanese mythology, Ryūgū-jō is the undersea palace of Ryūjin, the dragon god of the sea. Depending on the version of the legend, it is built from red and white coral, or from solid crystal. The inhabitants of the palace were Ryūjin's servants, which were various denizens of the sea...
, the palace of Ryūjin
Ryujin
, also known as Ōwatatsumi, was the tutelary deity of the sea in Japanese mythology. This Japanese dragon symbolized the power of the ocean, had a large mouth, and was able to transform into a human shape. Ryūjin lived in Ryūgū-jō, his palace under the sea built out of red and white coral, from...
, the Dragon God, under the sea. He stays there for three days and, upon his return to his village, finds himself 300 years in the future.
History
The name Urashima Taro first appears in the 15th century (the Muromachi periodMuromachi 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, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
), in the book Otogizōshi
Otogizoshi
refers to a group of approximately 350 Japanese prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period . These illustrated short stories, which remain unattributed, together form one of the representative literary genres of the Japanese medieval era.-Overview:This type of short prose narrative...
, but the story is much older, dating back to the 8th century (the Nara Period
Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from AD 710 to 794. Empress Gemmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō . Except for 5 years , when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kammu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō, in 784...
). These older books, such as Nihon Shoki
Nihon Shoki
The , sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki, the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical...
, Man'yōshū and Tango no Kuni Fudoki (丹後国風土記) refer to Urashima Taro as Urashimako, though the story is the same. This represents a change in Japanese naming customs; in the previous eras, -ko (child) was used for both male and female names, while in later times it was mostly a female name element, replaced with -tarou (great youth) in boys' names. The story bears a striking similarity to many other tales, including that of the Irish legend of Oisín
Oisín
Oisín , also spelt in English Ossian or Osheen, was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, and is a warrior of the fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology...
and the earlier Chinese legend of Ranka
Ranka (legend)
Ranka or Lankeshan ji, or Rotten Axe Handle in English, is a Chinese legend similar to that of Rip Van Winkle, although it predates it by at least a 1000 years. The exact date of origin of the legend is unknown...
.
Story
One day a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō is fishing when he notices a group of children torturingZoosadism
Zoosadism is a term coined by Ernest Borneman referring to pleasure derived from cruelty to animals. Zoosadism is part of the Macdonald triad, a set of three behaviors that are a precursor to sociopathic behavior.-Research:...
a small turtle. Tarō saves it and lets it to 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
Ryujin
, also known as Ōwatatsumi, was the tutelary deity of the sea in Japanese mythology. This Japanese dragon symbolized the power of the ocean, had a large mouth, and was able to transform into a human shape. Ryūjin lived in Ryūgū-jō, his palace under the sea built out of red and white coral, from...
, 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
Ryugu-jo
In Japanese mythology, Ryūgū-jō is the undersea palace of Ryūjin, the dragon god of the sea. Depending on the version of the legend, it is built from red and white coral, or from solid crystal. The inhabitants of the palace were Ryūjin's servants, which were various denizens of the sea...
). There he meets the Emperor and the small turtle, who was now a lovely princess, Otohime.
Tamatebako
The is an Origami model featured in a Japanese folk tale. It is a modular cube design that can be opened from any side. If more than one face of the model is opened, the cube falls apart and cannot easily be reconstructed...
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 ..."
Variations
As always with folklore, there are many different versions of this extremely famous story. In one, for example, there were three drawers in the box. After he turned into an old man he found a mirror, then took the body of a crane when touched by a crane feather from the last box, in another he 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. Also, there is a version in which he dies in the process of aging (his body turns into dust), as no one can live 300 years.Commemoration
Kyoto Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of the island of Honshu. The capital is the city of Kyoto.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Kyoto prefecture was known as Yamashiro....
, 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
Tamatebako
The is an Origami model featured in a Japanese folk tale. It is a modular cube design that can be opened from any side. If more than one face of the model is opened, the cube falls apart and cannot easily be reconstructed...
. 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
Emperor Junna
was the 53rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Junna reigned from 823 to 833.-Traditional narrative:Junna had six Empresses and Imperial consorts and 13 Imperial sons and daughters...
ordered Ono no Takamura
Ono no Takamura
also known as was an early Heian period scholar and poet.-Life:Takamura is a descendant of Ono no Imoko who served as Kenzuishi, and his father was Ono no Minemori. He is 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.
In popular culture
The story influenced various works of fiction and a number of films. Among them are mangaManga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
and anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
such as Dragonball Z, Clannad, Detective Conan, YuYu Hakusho
YuYu Hakusho
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The name of the series is spelled YuYu Hakusho in the Viz Media manga and Yu Yu Hakusho in other English distributions of the franchise. The series tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck and...
, Urusei Yatsura
Urusei Yatsura
is a comedic manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi that premiered in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 1978 and ran until its conclusion in 1987. Its 374 individual chapters were collected and published in 34 tankōbon volumes. The series tells the story of Ataru Moroboshi, and the alien...
, Love Hina
Love Hina
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine by Kodansha from October 21, 1998 to October 31, 2001 and was published in 14 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The series tells the story of Keitaro Urashima and his attempts to...
(whose lead male character is called Urashima Keitaro, and with a girl named Otohime Mutsumi), Doraemon
Doraemon
is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio which later became an anime series and an Asian franchise...
, Gintama
Gintama
, also known as Gintama, is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi and serialized, beginning on December 8, 2003, in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump...
, Kamen Rider Den-O
Kamen Rider Den-O
is the seventeenth installment in the popular Kamen Rider Series of tokusatsu programs. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei. It premiered January 28, 2007 on TV Asahi, and concluded airing on January 20, 2008...
(the namesake of the Imagin Urataros, given by Naomi), Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop
is a critically acclaimed and award-winning 1998 Japanese anime series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and produced by Sunrise. Its 26 episodes comprise a complete storyline: set in 2071, the series follows the adventures, misadventures and tragedies of five bounty...
, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi, Ghost Sweeper Mikami and RahXephon
RahXephon
is a Japanese anime series about 17-year-old Ayato Kamina, his ability to control a godlike mecha known as the RahXephon, and his inner journey to find a place in the world...
. It is retold in and used as the basis for the short story “Another Story” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, published in her story collection A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea is a 1994 collection of short stories and novellas by Ursula K. Le Guin. The collection was second in the 1995 Locus Award poll in the collection category.-Contents:The stories in the collection are:...
, named for the character of this story.
Urashima Tarō is often referenced in Hideo Kojima
Hideo Kojima
is a Japanese game director originally employed at Konami. He is currently the director of Kojima Productions and was promoted to Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment in early 2011...
's adventure
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
video game Policenauts
Policenauts
is a cinematic adventure game with a hard science fiction storyline, written and directed by Hideo Kojima, and published by Konami. It was initially released for the PC-9821 computer platform in 1994, followed by remade versions for the 3DO in 1995, and the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996...
, and much of the game's plot elements were also inspired by the tale. In Clover Studio
Clover Studio
Clover Studio was an independent Japanese development studio, funded by Capcom Japan. Clover Studio developed the PlayStation 2 port of Viewtiful Joe, both versions of Viewtiful Joe 2 for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation 2 titles Ōkami and God Hand...
's action-adventure
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
video game Okami
Okami
is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It was released for Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia...
, the protagonist Amaterasu
Amaterasu
, or is apart of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great August kami who...
chases away a group of children bullying a fisherman named Urashima, setting up a major sub-plot in the game very similar to the tale of Urashima Tarō.
The oldest known animated adaptation Urashima Tarō
Urashima Tarō (anime)
is an animated film produced by Seitaro Kitayama in 1918, which was found in an antique shop in Osaka in March 2008. The film is an adaptation of a folk tale Urashima Tarō about a fisherman traveling to an underwater world on a turtle....
of the tale premiered in 1918.
See also
- TamatebakoTamatebakoThe is an Origami model featured in a Japanese folk tale. It is a modular cube design that can be opened from any side. If more than one face of the model is opened, the cube falls apart and cannot easily be reconstructed...
, an origamiOrigamiis the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside Japan in the mid-1900s. It has since then evolved into a modern art form...
cube that causes the aging of Urashima Tarō in some versions of the story. - Lankeshan jiRanka (legend)Ranka or Lankeshan ji, or Rotten Axe Handle in English, is a Chinese legend similar to that of Rip Van Winkle, although it predates it by at least a 1000 years. The exact date of origin of the legend is unknown...
- Yuri's Brush with Magic by Maureen WartskiMaureen WartskiMaureen Crane Wartski is a naturalized American author She has written many novels for children and young adults...
, a young adult novel that integrates the Urashima Taro myth into narrative. - Pandora's boxPandora's boxPandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation around line 60 of Hesiod's Works and Days. The "box" was actually a large jar given to Pandora , which contained all the evils of the world. When Pandora opened the jar, all its contents except for one item...
, a magic box which spread disaster when opened in Greek mythology. - King in the mountainKing in the mountainA king in the mountain, king under the mountain or sleeping hero is a prominent motif in folklore and mythology that is found in many folktales and legends...
, several legends of people hidden away in time. - Rip van WinkleRip Van Winkle"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon...
- The Picture of Dorian GrayThe Picture of Dorian GrayThe Picture of Dorian Gray is the only published novel by Oscar Wilde, appearing as the lead story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890, printed as the July 1890 issue of this magazine...
- KakudmiKakudmiKakudmi was the King of Kusasthali, a kingdom beneath the ocean. He was the father of Revati, who married Balarama...
and RevatiRevatiRevati, within Hinduism, is the daughter of King Kakudmi and the wife of Balarama, the elder brother of Krishna. Her account is given within a number of Puranic texts such as the Mahābhārata and Bhagavata Purana.-Meeting with Brahma:... - HerlaHerlaHerla or Herla King is a legendary leader of the German mythic Wild Hunt and the name from which the French term, Herlequin may have been derived...
- OisínOisínOisín , also spelt in English Ossian or Osheen, was regarded in legend as the greatest poet of Ireland, and is a warrior of the fianna in the Ossianic or Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology...
- The Voyage of Bran
- Iara (mythology)Iara (mythology)Iara, also spelled Uira or Yara, is the name of a figure from Brazilian mythology based on ancient Tupi and Guaraní mythology. The word derives from Old Tupi yîara = y + îara = lady of the lake . She is seen as either a water nymph, siren, or mermaid depending upon the context of the story told...
- Urashima effect, another name for time dilation in the theory of relativityTheory of relativityThe theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
.
External links
- Urashima Tarō (in English)
- The legend of Urashima Tarō in 24 images painted on a wall near Lake Saroma in Hokkaido
- Urashima Tarō (in English), from Mythological Japan (1873)