Urashima Tarō
The tale originates from the legend of Urashimako (Urashima no ko or Ura no Shimako[b]) recorded in various pieces of literature dating to the 8th century, such as the Fudoki for Tango Province, Nihon Shoki, and the Man'yōshū.
A condensed version of Sazanami's retelling then appeared in Kokutei kyōkasho [ja], Japan's nationally designated textbook for elementary school, and became widely read by schoolchildren of the populace.
[d][1][3] One day, a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō is fishing when he notices a group of children torturing a small turtle.
The base text used will be Urashima Tarō (うらしま太郎), from the 3rd edition of the Kokugo tokuhon [ja] or "national language reader", a widely familiar textbook used during the 1918–1932 period.
[8][f] Long ago, a man named Urashima Tarō of unidentified profession[g][9] (or, in recent textbooks often a fisherman[10]) found a turtle on the beach being toyed with by a group of children.
The princess tried to dissuade him from leaving, but finally let him go with a parting gift, a mysterious box called tamatebako[14] whose lid he was told never to open.
[1] 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.
[i][23][24] In the Otogi Bunko (or "Companion Library") version, a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō catches a turtle on his fishing line and releases it.
[25] It ends with Urashima Tarō transforming into a crane,[30] and his wife reverting to the form of a turtle, the two thereafter revered as myōjin (Shinto deities).
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.
[47] The story entitled "The Fisher-boy Urashima" (1886) retold by Basil Hall Chamberlain, was number 8 in the "Japanese Fairy Tale Series",[48][49] printed by Hasegawa Takejirō, the issuer of many such chirimen-bon or "crepe-paper books".
[51][52] 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.
[1] 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,[62][25] and in the kyōgen play adaptation.
[w][66] 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.
[x] The argument dates the Tango fudoki to shortly after 715, but the compilers refer to an earlier record by Iyobe no Umakai [ja], which was identical in content.
[z][84] They are greeted by first seven, then eight children, who represent the constellations of Pleiades and Taurus (or more precisely the Hyades cluster)[85][86] who address him as the "husband of Kame Hime (Princess Turtle)".
[88] 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.
[92][93] 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 Ōkuma Kiichirō [ja].
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).
[96] Recorded in Irō setsuden (遺老説伝, "Accounts Left by Old Men") of the 18th century, Tale 103 "A person of Yonaha village visits the Dragon Palace" is considered analogous to Urashima Tarō.
[109] Yanagita Kunio felt that the notion of the Dragon Palace shared its origin with the concept of Niruya (Niraikanai [ja]) in the southerly islands of Japan.
[110] Irō setsuden also records a similar tale, number 42, about Yoshinawa Fuyako (善縄大屋子), 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.
[111][112] Although a contrived piece of fiction, the old-style jōruri Urashima Tarō (『浦嶋太郎』) situates its story in the vicinity of this local legend, namely Agematsu-juku.
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.
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.
[116] Japanese art collector William Anderson also wrote that a certain Chinese tale was closer to "Rip Van Winkle" than Urashima was.
[117] That Chinese analogue is the anecdote of the woodcutter Wang Zhi,[af] who after watching immortals playing a board game discovers many years have passed.
[117] The piece is a selection in the Shuyiji [zh; ja][ag] or "Accounts of Strange Things", and is also known as the legend of Lankeshan[ah] or "Rotten Axe Handle Mountain".
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.
