Editing Urashima Tarō

{{Short description|Protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale}}
{{About|the Japanese folklore figure|the anime film based on it|Urashima Tarō (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
[[Image:Matsuki Heikichi(1899)-Urashima-p04.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Urashima Tarō and princess of Horai, by Matsuki Heikichi (1899)<!--The story in this picture book is closer to otogi than kintei kyokasho though. Urashima only rides turtle on return.-->]]

{{nihongo|'''Urashima Tarō'''|浦島 太郎}} is the protagonist of a Japanese [[fairy tale]] (''otogi banashi''), who, in a typical modern version, is a [[fishermen|fisherman]] rewarded for rescuing a [[sea turtle]], and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace ([[Ryūgū-jō]]) beneath the sea. There, he is entertained by the princess [[Otohime]]{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name="miyao-on-otohime"}} 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]]), 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'''{{efn|Urashimako is the neutral designation; the name was often read as Urashima no ko in the past, but more recent commentators and editions in print prefer Ura no Shimako.}}) recorded in various pieces of literature dating to the 8th century, such as the ''[[Fudoki]]'' for [[Tango Province]], ''[[Nihon Shoki]]'', and the ''[[Man'yōshū]]''.

During the [[Muromachi period|Muromachi]] to [[Edo period]]s, versions of ''[[Urashima Tarō (otogi-zōshi)|Urashima Tarō]]'' 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 {{illm|Iwaya Sazanami|ja|巌谷小波}} in the [[Meiji period]]. A condensed version of Sazanami's retelling then appeared in {{illm|Kokutei kyōkasho{{!}}''Kokutei kyōkasho''|ja|国定教科書}}, Japan's nationally designated textbook for elementary school, and became widely read by schoolchildren of the populace.{{Efn|Holmes, p. 6: "Miura solves the question of who the author of this Urashima Tarō [textbook] version was, and identifies him as Iwaya Sazanami".<ref name=holmes-p6&miura-p21>{{harvp|Holmes|2014|pp=6–7}} citing {{harvp|Miura|1989|p=21}}</ref>}} Modern versions of Urashima Tarō, which are generally similar, are demonstrably based on the story from this nationally designated textbook series.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The Urashima tale first appeared in the 2nd edition ''Kokugo tokuhon'' or "<!--Japanese-->National Language Reader", officially called ''Dai-2 ki Jinjō shōgaku tokuhon'' 第2期尋常小学読本 and unofficially known by the shorthand ''hatatako tokuhon'' ハタタコ読本. The story bore the title ''Urashima no hanashi'' (ウラシマノハナシ).{{sfnp|Miura|1989|pp=21, 34–35}} }}<ref name=holmes-p6&miura-p21/><ref>{{harvp|McKeon|1996|pp=195–196}}</ref>

== 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]].<!--Do not link to Toyotama-hime. She is not actually called this in the old chronicles, plus, many sources prefer to designate her younger sister [[Tamayori-hime (mother of Jimmu)]] as "Oto-hime", since "oto" generally means second, cf. explanatory note (Miyao): -->{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name="miyao-on-otohime"|Oto-hime must have been the second daughter or the younger princess, since her name Oto can be read as ''otsu'', meaning "No. 2", as in the common phrase {{illm|kōotsu|ja|甲乙丙|lt=''kōotsu''}} which means "No. 1 and No. 2",<!--乙姫は甲乙の乙であるので次女、二女、妹姫となります-->" as explained by folklorist {{illm|Yoshio Miyao|ja|宮尾與男}}.{{sfnp|Miyao|2009|p=198}}}} 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 ==
[[File:Jinjyoshogakukokugotokuhon-v3-p040.jpg|thumb|360px|Urashima Taro encounters children on the beach who are "toying with" a turtle.{{right|―''Jinjō shōgaku kokugo tokuhon'' (the 3rd edition of ''Kokutei tokuhon'') (1928)}}]]

A summary of the Urashima tale from one of the nationalized textbooks ({{illm|Kokutei kyōkasho{{!}}''Kokutei kyōkasho''|ja|国定教科書}}) will be given below. The base text used will be ''Urashima Tarō'' (うらしま太郎), from the 3rd edition of the {{illm|Kokugo tokuhon{{!}}''Kokugo tokuhon''|ja|国語読本}} or "national language reader", a widely familiar textbook used during the 1918–1932 period.{{r|suzuki-t}}{{r|miura-21}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The 3rd edition was officially titled {{nihongo|''Jinjō shōgaku kokugo tokuhon''|尋常小学国語読本}} or "Elementary School National Language Reader". It was also known by its nickname {{illm|Hanahato tokuhon{{!}}''Hanahato tokuhon''|ja|ハナハト読本}} and other known as the "White Reader".{{r|suzuki-t}}}}<ref>{{harvp|Holmes|2014|pp=6–7, 77}}</ref> An English translation has been provided in Yoshiko Holmes's thesis.<ref>{{harvp|Holmes|2014|pp=151–152}}: as primary source No. 13.</ref>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The title is mixed [[hiragana]] and [[kanji]] in the 3rd edition. In the 2nd edition it was entirely in [[katakana]]. Although the story in the 2nd edition was earlier, Miura's analysis concentrated on the 3rd edition, as it was more widely read.}}

{{Quote|text=Long ago, a man named Urashima Tarō of unidentified profession{{efn|The 3rd edition national textbook begins "むかし、うらしま太郎といふ人 (Long ago, a person named Urashima Tarō)".}}<ref name=kokutei3 /> (or, in recent textbooks often a fisherman{{sfnp|Nakashima|2010|p=67}}) found a turtle on the beach being toyed with by a group of children. He purchased the turtle and released it in the ocean.

Two or three days later, while he was fishing on a boat as always, the grateful turtle came and told him he would carry him on his back to the underwater Dragon Palace ([[Ryūgū-jō|Ryūgū]]<ref>{{harvp|Holmes|2014|pp=151–152}} gives "Sea Palace" but the name "Ryūgū" is tabulated on p. 105 (under #13).</ref>). At the palace, the princess ([[Otohime]]<ref>{{harvp|Holmes|2014|pp=151–152}} gives "princess" but the name "Otohime" is tabulated on p. 104 (under #13).</ref>) thanked him for saving the turtle.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The 4th phase textbook adds that he was entertained by dances performed by ''[[Pagrus major|tai]]'' (snapper), ''[[hirame]]'' (halibut), [[octopus|octopuses]] and other creatures.<ref name=kokutei4 /> The ''tai'' and ''hirame'' fish feature in the school song.}}

After an unspecified number of days, remembrance of his mother and father made him homesick, and he bid farewell to Otohime. The princess tried to dissuade him from leaving, but finally let him go with a parting gift, a mysterious box called ''[[tamatebako]]''<ref>{{harvp|Holmes|2014|pp=151–152}} gives "treasure box" but the name "tamatebako" is tabulated on p. 107 (under #13.).</ref> whose lid he was told never to open.

When Tarō returned to his hometown, everything had changed. His home was gone, his mother and father had perished, and the people he knew were nowhere to be seen. <!--Thinking that opening the box might do some good, and (added in Kokutei 4)-->After not remembering the princess's warning, he lifted the lid of the box. A cloud of white smoke arose<!--and touched his face (Kokutei 4)-->, turning him to a <!--wrinkled and (kokutei 4)--> white-haired old man.<ref name=kokutei3>{{citation|author=Japanese Ministry of Education <!--文部省--> |title=Jinjō shōgaku kokugo tokuhon, kan 3 |script-title=ja:尋常小學國語讀本. 卷3 |publisher=Nihon Shoseki<!--日本書籍--> |year=1928  |url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1874185 |pages=39–46}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Miura|1989|pp=22ff.}}: reprint from  ''Dai 3 ki kokutei kyōkasho''</ref>|sign=|source=}}

The story remained as one of the dozen tales included in the 4th edition of national language reader textbooks also known as {{illm|Sakura tokuhon{{!}}''Sakura tokuhon''|ja|サクラ読本}} 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".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Antoni |first=Klaus |title=Momotaro and the Spirit of Japan |journal=Asian Folklore Studies |volume=50 |year=1991 |pages=160–161 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270376519}}<!--https://books.google.com/books?id=NnfhAAAAMAAJ--></ref>

== 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  {{illm|Jinjō shōgaku shōka{{!}}''Jinjō shōgaku shōka''|ja|尋常小学唱歌}} (1911).<ref>{{citation|last=Takasaki |first=Midori  |title=The Description of Otohime in Modern Literature |year=2010  |pages=164|publisher=Ochanomizu University |hdl=10083/49274 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www3.u-toyama.ac.jp/niho/song/urashimataro/urashimataro_e.html |last=Hamada |first=Miwa |title=Urashima-taro (Ministry of Education song)|website=Japanese Songs- Classified by Title – |year=2004 |access-date=2017-09-29}}</ref> This song's author was long relegated to anonymity, but the lyricist is now considered to be {{illm|Okkotsu Saburō|ja|乙骨三郎}}.<ref>{{citation|last=Ono |first=Mitsuyasu (小野恭靖) |title=Kodomo uta wo manabu hito no tame ni |script-title=ja:子ども歌を学ぶ人のために |publisher=Sekaishisosha |year=2007 |pages=229, 262|isbn=9784790712305 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JrE0AQAAIAAJ|language=ja}}</ref>{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=211}}

Another school song "Urashima Tarō" (うらしまたろう, lyrics by {{illm|Ishihara Wasaburō|ja|石原和三郎}}<!-- McKeon reads as "Ishihara Kazusaburo"--> and music by {{illm|Tamura Torazō|ja|田村虎蔵}}) appeared in the ''Yōnen shōka'' (1900).{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=211}} Although written in stilted [[Classical Japanese language|classical language]], Miura considered this version the more familiar.{{sfnp|Miura|1989|pp=36–37|ps=<!--: よく知られて口ずさまれるのは、やはり文語体-->}}

== Otogizōshi ==
{{Main|Urashima Tarō (otogi-zōshi)}}
Long before the versions in 19th century textbooks, there had been the ''[[otogi-zōshi]]'' versions from the [[Muromachi period]].<ref name="holmes-p6&miura-p21" /> 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.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The ''Otogi Bunko'' usually refers to the Shibukawa Collection, c. 1720, but the color-illustrated book called ''tanroku-bon'' dated 50 years earlier carries the same text.<ref name="keene" />}}<!--Note: Keene's mistype "Shibuya Seiemon" should read "Shibukawa Seiemon", as he writes in note 3. The name Shibukawa Seiemon (渋川清右衛門) seems the correct one, but it can alternately be read "Kiyoemon", as Holmes's thesis has done.-->{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|p=17}}{{sfnp|Holmes|2014|p=17, note 71}}

=== 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.{{efn|She only reveals this when Urashima wants to leave the Dragon Palace.}} When Urashima rows her boat to her magnificent residence, she proposes that they marry.<ref name=waterhouse /> The residence is the Dragon Palace, and <!--start of contribution by MartinPoulter, 10:07, 30 July 2015 -->on the four sides of the palace, each gardenscape is in a different season<!--end-->.<ref name=shirane /> Urashima decides to return to his home after three years and is given a {{Nihongo|memento box|かたみの筥/箱|katami no hako}} in parting<!--かたみの筥-->.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name=tamatebako-in-bunko|However the box is called ''tamatebako'' in the ''Otogi Bunko'' version, not in the main text, but in the inserted poem that contains the expression "'''akete kuyashiki'''" which later led to the stock phrase "{{Nihongo|opened to his regret(mortification), the tamatebako|開けて悔しき玉手箱|akete kuyashiki tamatebako}}" which has become well-known in association with the Urashima tale.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=111, 114}} This poem is quoted not just in the Otogi Bunko and all the Group IV texts,<ref>Hayashi (2012), ''Bulletin'' '''26''', p.10</ref> but in Group I also.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|p=10}}}} 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<!--あひ構へてあけさせ給ふなと言ひけれども-->,<ref name=waterhouse /> whereupon three wisps of purple cloud appear and turn him into an old man.<ref name=waterhouse /> It ends with Urashima Tarō transforming into a crane,<ref>{{harvp|Sugiyama|1964}}</ref> and his wife reverting to the form of a turtle, the two thereafter revered as ''[[myōjin]]'' ([[Shinto]] deities).<ref>{{citation|last=Watanabe |first=Masako |title=Storytelling in Japanese Art |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1588394409 |pages=66–67, 108}}</ref><ref name="otogi-bunko-textimage">{{citation|editor1-last=Imaizumi |editor1-first=Sadasuke (今泉定助) |editor2-last=Hatakeyama |editor2-first=Ken (畠山健)|title=Chapter 21: Urashimatarō |script-title=ja:浦島太郎|work=Otogizōshi 御伽草子 |volume=2<!--後--> |publisher=Yoshikawa Hanshichi<!--吉川半七--> |year=1891 |url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/992892/92}} (text image)  {{in lang|ja}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cscd.osaka-u.ac.jp/user/rosaldo/Taro_Urashima.html |title=Taro Urashima story: A Fable |website=Ikeda Mitsuho |author=Ikeda Mitsuho |year=2013 |access-date=2017-09-24}} (transcribed) {{in lang|ja}}</ref>

=== 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.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|p=4}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2013|p=5}} The ''Otogi Bunko'' text belongs to Group&nbsp;IV.{{efn|Also both the picture scroll and the storybook in the [[Columbia University]] Library collection are Group IV.}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=20, 30}}

=== Group closest to modern version ===
[[File:Urashima Taro handscroll from Bodleian Library 1.jpg|thumbnail|right|480px|Urashima saves the turtle.{{right|{{small|―From an ''Otogizōshi'' picture scroll in the Bodleian Library collection,{{efn|name="bodleina-shelfmark"|MS. Jap. c. 4 (R)}} late 16th or early 17th century.}}}}]]

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.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|p=17}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Urashima did not ride the turtle until the early 18th century.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2001|p=41}}}}

Group I texts are more similar to the modern version, as it contains the element of Urashima purchasing the turtle to save it.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|p=1}} Additionally, this group explicitly gives the princess's name as Otomime (or "Kame-no-Otohime"){{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=10, 14}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=10, 14}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=9, 25}} 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).{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name=tamatebako-in-bunko}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2013|pp=11, 28, 30}}{{sfnp|Hayashi|2016|pp=10–11}}

The picture scroll in the collection of the [[Bodleian Library]], Oxford University{{efn|name="bodleina-shelfmark"}} also belongs to Group I.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=4–5}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The full text is transcribed in Japanese, published in {{harvp|Hayashi|2013|pp=18–31}}.}}

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,{{efn|That is, it is opposite the situation in Group I.}} 4) The villagers in recognition of his longevity give him proper [[cremation]],{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|And a Buddhist [[Sādhanā|training priest]] plays a role in convincing the villagers. This priest says Urashima lived 7000 years in the Takayasu, Keio, and Paris texts.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|p=13}} The [[Japanese Folk Crafts Museum|Nihon Mingeikan]] copy is a hybrid since it gives "700 years" here instead, and "Dragon Palace ([[Ryūgū]])" rather than "Horai".{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=13, 14}}}} 5) Smoke from the ''tamatebako'' reaches Horai and Princess Otohime is grief-stricken.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2011|pp=9–10}}

== 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 {{nihongo|three-tiered jeweled hand-box|三重ねの玉手箱|mitsugasane no tamatebako}}, that is to say, a stacked box<!--see {{nihongo||重箱|jūbako}}); not a three-drawered box--> that was given to Urashima. When he opened the lid, the first box (on the top) contained a [[crane (bird)|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.<ref>{{harvp|Seki|1963|pp=111–114}}, reprinted in: {{harvp|Tatar|2017|pp=167–171}}</ref>

=== 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",{{sfnp|Chamberlain|1886}}<ref name="chamberlain-tr-miyao-ed"/> printed by [[Hasegawa Takejirō]], the issuer of many such ''chirimen-bon'' or "crepe-paper books".<ref name=sharf /> Although the illustrations are not credited in the publication, they have been attributed to [[Kobayashi Eitaku]].<ref name=tablada /><ref name=kyoto-u-foreign-studies />

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.{{sfnp|Takanashi|1989|pp=121, 127}} 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,{{sfnp|Satomi|2001|p=100}} Chamberlain preferring to incorporate details from the ancient texts, while eschewing embellishment from the Otogizōshi.{{sfnp|Makino|2011|p=129}} Chamberlain has also published a [[Verse (poetry)|versified]] version of the tale.<ref name=chamberlain&mason/>

In Chamberlain's fairytale version, "Urashima" (not "Tarō") catches a tortoise (''[[sic]]''){{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|It has been pointed out that while "tortoise" can be a turtle or a land turtle, the "[[tortoiseshell]]" of Japan is ''bekko'',{{sfnp|Takanashi|1989|p=124}} and this normally signifies a product taken from the shell of the [[hawksbill sea turtle]].}} 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.{{Efn|Here, the Dragon Palace is not submerged in the ocean; the two of them reach it rowing by boat.}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The halls of the four season are lacking in the Dragon Palace here.{{sfnp|Makino|2011|p=100}}}}

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.<ref>{{harvp|Chamberlain|1886}}, ''The Fisher-boy Urashima''</ref> The ending by death concurs with older tradition,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The ''Nihon Shoki'', the ''Fudoki'' of Tango Province, and the ''Man'yōshū''.{{sfnp|Makino|2011|p=129}}}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The death occurs in summer, in keeping with the ''Nihon Shoki'' which dates it to the seventh month of the 22nd year of Emperor Yuryaku.}} and not the ''otogi-zōshi'' storybook.{{sfnp|Makino|2011|p=129}}

[[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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hearn |first=Lafcadio |title=Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in New Japan |location=Boston and New York|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin |year=1895 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924021575208 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924021575208/page/n12 1]–27}}</ref>

=== 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 (bird)|crane]] and flies up to the sky. In another, he grows gills and leaps into the sea, whereby he regains his youth.<ref name=sherman>{{citation|last=Sherman |first=Howard J  |title=World Folklore for Storytellers: Tales of Wonder, Wisdom, Fools, and Heroes |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bi7fBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA216 |pages=215–216|isbn=9781317451648  }}</ref>

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.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

In another version, Urashima does stay with Otohime and they conceive a child. [https://yokai.com/otohime/]

== 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]]'',{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=134–136ff}}<ref name=waterhouse /> and in the [[kyōgen]] play adaptation.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=102–107ff}}

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]] ({{small|''[[Tango no Kuni Fudoki]]'', [[:ja:丹後国風土記|丹後国風土記]]}}) that survived in excerpts, the ''[[Man'yōshū]]'' and the ''[[Nihon Shoki]]''.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=7–8, 28, 35}}

More recent editions of these texts tend to favor the "Ura (no) Shimako" reading,{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=7–9, 248}} although some consider this debatable.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The recent "Shimako" reading is based on the alternative name given as "Tsutsukawa no Shimako (Shimako of Tsutsukawa)" in the Tango Province [[Fudoki]] excerpt, which a number of scholars consider the oldest record. However, the same source also records the poem allegedly by the hero which clearly gives the reading in phonetics (in ''[[man'yōgana]]'') as "Urashima-no-ko (宇良志麻能古)". The proponents of the other reading discount the poem by assuming it to be of a later date.<ref name="hayashi-kundoku"/>}}<ref name="hayashi-kundoku"/>

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.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=107, 228}} 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.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=102–107ff}} Or perhaps the name was borrowed from {{illm|Tarō kaja|ja|太郎冠者}} who is a [[stock character]] in kyōgen.<ref name=sakamoto-annot-miyoshi/>

===Dragon Palace===
The ''[[Man'yōshū]]'' ballad mentions not only the woman of the Immortal Land, but her father as the Sea God ([[Watatsumi]]).<ref name=manyo-aston/><ref name=sakata/> 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 sons of the dragon|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.<ref name=sakata/>

The otherworld Urashima visited was not the "Dragon Palace" ([[Ryūgū-jō|Ryūgū]]) until the ''[[otogi-zōshi]]'' versions appeared.<ref name=akiya/> The heroine then became Otohime, the younger daughter of the Dragon King.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=136}}

===Relative dates===
As for the relative dating of these texts, an argument has been advanced that places the ''Fudoki'' version as the oldest.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|By proponents such as {{illm|Akihisa Shigematsu |ja|重松明久}} (p. 107) and Yū Mizuno 1:63, cited by McKeon.}} The argument dates the ''Tango fudoki'' to shortly after 715, but the compilers refer to an earlier record by {{illm|Iyobe no Umakai|ja|伊預部馬養}}, which was identical in content.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=7–8}}<ref name=shigematsu-oldest /><ref name=mizuno-oldest /> It has even been suggested by [[Shūichi Katō (critic)|Shūichi Katō]] that this Umakai originally adapted this tale into Japanese from a similar Chinese tale.<ref name=kato />

== Tango Fudoki ==
[[File:Gishi47zu-vol2-009-Gekko-zuihitsu-Mizunoe-no-Urashima.jpg|thumb|300px|Mizuenoe no Urashima riding a turtle with flowing tail (''mino game''{{sfnp|Hayashi|2001|p=43–45}}). Depiction of him riding a turtle appeared quite late, in the early 18th century.{{sfnp|Hayashi|2001|p=41}}<br />{{right|—[[Ogata Gekkō]], ''Gekkō zuihitsu'' (1887).{{sfnp|Hayashi|2001|p=33}}}}]]
In this version,{{Refn|Translated in full by Holmes;{{sfnp|Holmes|2014|pp=114–118}} also see Akima.{{sfnp|Akima|1993|pp=109–112}}}} the protagonist is referred to as "Urashimako{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Urashimako is the neutral form of convenience, it has been debated whether it should be read "Urashima no ko" or "Ura no Shimako".{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=7–9, 248}}<ref name="hayashi-kundoku"/>}} of Mizunoe" (or "Urashimako of {{illm|Tsutsukawa, Yosa District{{!}}Tsutsukawa|ja|筒川村}} in [[Yosa District, Kyoto|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.{{sfnp|Tagaya|2011|pp=98–99, 103, 107}} She identifies herself as someone from the household of immortals<!--仙(ひじり)の家の人なり-->, and proposes to take him to the place of immortals,{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=44–47}} which may be Horaisan ([[Mount Penglai]]) or "Tokoyo-no-kuni" ("Timeless Land" or "Land of Eternity").{{efn|It is written as Horai ([[Mount Penglai]]) in the straight Chinese text, but it is also annotated to indicate its should be read as Tokoyo-no-kuni.}}{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=34, 65}}

They are greeted by first seven, then eight children, who represent the constellations of [[Pleiades]] and [[Taurus (constellation)|Taurus]] (or more precisely the [[Hyades (star cluster)|Hyades]] cluster)<ref name=ikeda-hiroko />{{sfnp|Holmes|2014|p=116}} who address him as the "husband of Kame Hime (Princess Turtle)".{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=10}}{{sfnp|Holmes|2014|p=116}} The remainder is mostly the same as the typical tale.<ref name=ikeda-hiroko />

After three years, the man develops a longing for his parents and homeland. The princess is saddened, but imparts him with a {{nihongo|jeweled comb box|玉匣|tamakushige}}, forbidding him to open it if he wished ever to return to her.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=12}} 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.{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=13}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|An alternate reading is that a cloud rose up, and so too a certain sweet fragrance.{{sfnp|Tagaya|2011|pp=98–99, 103, 107}}}} Still, the couple are somehow (supernaturally) able to exchange poems.{{sfnp|Holmes|2014|pp=114–118}} These poems are recorded in phonetic ''[[man'yōgana]]''.<ref name=hayashi-kundoku /><ref name=sasaki-ed />

==''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]]. [[William George Aston|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 Penglai|Mount Hōrai]] (glossed in ''[[kana]]'' as Tokoyo<ref name=poulton/>), where they saw {{nihongo|immortals|仙衆 (ひじり)}}.{{sfnp|Aston|1896|loc='''1''', p. 368}}<ref name=bialock/>

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 {{illm|Ōkuma Kiichirō|ja|大久間喜一郎}}.<ref name="okuma"/>

==Manyoshu==

A poem reflecting upon the legend of Urashima of Mizunoe occurs in the ''[[Man'yōshū]]''. The piece is ascribed to [[Takahashi no Mushimaro]].{{sfnp|Holmes|2014|p=23}} Early translations include the prose rendition by Aston,<ref name=manyo-aston/> and the ballad-form by Chamberlain.<ref name=manyo-chamberlain/>

In this version, the woman of the Immortal Land (Tokoyo) appears as the daughter of the Sea God ([[Watatsumi|Watatsumi no kami]]).<!--Watadzumi, Wadatsumi--><ref name=manyo-aston/>{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|p=33}}

==Localizations==

=== Yokohama ===
[[Image:Keiunji -03.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.7|Keiun-ji, the stele that reads "Ryūgū denrai Urashima Kanzeon Urashima-tera", which used to be at Kampuku-ji.<ref name=kenkyukai1928/>]]
<!--{{Further|浦島太郎伝説関係資料}}-->
[[Basil Hall Chamberlain]] (1880) indicated the presence of a temple dedicated to Urashima at [[Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama]], which housed several relics such as Urashima's fishing-line, and the casket (tamatebako).<ref name=manyo-chamberlain/> But when [[Ernest Satow]] went there with Chamberlain on 2 May 1880, there was nothing left to see except the statue of [[Guanyin|Kannon]] (Kanzeon), the [[bodhisattva]] of mercy.<ref name=satow/>
[[File:Urashima-Kannon_Pavilion.jpg|thumb|Statues of Kannon, Urashima Tarō and Otohime enshrined at Keiun-ji, Yokohama.]]
Neither recorded the name to the temple, but Japanese sources write that the so-called Urashima-dera (Urashima Temple) used to be {{nihongo||観福寺|Kanpuku-ji}}, until it burned down in 1868,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|One source says this was still during Keiō 4 in (1868)<ref name=inoue_osamu/> another wrote "27th day of 1st month of Meiji 1"<ref name=kenkyukai1928/> Japan decided that dates in Keio 4, be retroactively rewritten as dates in Meiji 1.}} and the temple, including the Kannon goddess statue got translated to {{nihongo||慶運寺|Keiun-ji}} in 1872.<ref name=inoue_osamu/><ref name=hayashi-kampukuji/>

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 [[Matthew C. Perry|Commodore Perry]]'s fleet in 1852–1854.<ref>{{citation|title=Tōkaidō Kanagawa urashima-dera sanjō ni okeru ikokusen hasso chōbō no kei |script-title=ja:東海道神奈川於浦島寺山上異國舩眺望之景 |trans-title=Eight American ships in Yokohama seen from the Urashima Temple |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3g10365/}}</ref>

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]] 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.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|A pine named {{nihongo||龍燈の松|Ryūto no matsu|extra='dragon lantern pine'}}, which was this illuminated pine according to legend, stood until it was cut down when the railway opened.<ref name=kenkyukai1928/>}} Tarō built a hut to live here, housing the goddess statue from the Dragon Palace. The hut later became Kampuku-ji temple.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hagisaka |first=Noboru (萩坂昇) |title=Yokohama no minwa |script-title=ja:よこはまの民話|publisher=Musashi no jidō bunka no kai|year=1976 |series=Kanagawa no minwa|pages=97–103}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kojima |first=Yoshiyuki (小島瓔礼)|author-link=<!--ja:小島瓔礼-->|title=Busō mukashi banashi shu: Kanagawa |script-title=ja:武相昔話集: 神奈川|publisher=Iwasaki Bijutsusha<!--岩崎美術社--> |year=1981|page=71}}</ref>

=== Okinawa ===
[[Basil Hall Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] noted the theory that the Dragon Palace might be a romanticized notion of Okinawa, since "[[Ryūgū-jo|Ryūgū]]" (Dragon Palace) and [[Ryūkyū Islands|Ryūkyū]] (Okinawa) are near [[homophone]]s.<ref name=manyo-chamberlain/>

Recorded in {{nihongo||[[:ja:遺老説伝|遺老説伝]]|Irō setsuden|extra="Accounts Left by Old Men"}} of the 18th century, Tale 103 "A person of Yonaha village visits the Dragon Palace"<!--「与那覇村の人竜宮に遊ぶこと」--> is considered analogous to Urashima Tarō.<ref name=yanagita-okinawa/><ref name="urano&fukatsu"/><ref name=kurata/> In it, a certain man of Yonaha village in [[Haebaru, Okinawa|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" ({{lang|ja-Latn|usani}}) in his despair.<ref name="urano&fukatsu"/><ref name="taira"/>

Similar tales are found on [[Miyako-jima]] and other places.{{sfnp|Yanagita|1971|p=50}} [[Kunio Yanagita|Yanagita Kunio]] felt that the notion of the Dragon Palace shared its origin with the concept of Niruya ({{illm|Niraikanai|ja|ニライカナイ}}) in the southerly islands of Japan.<ref name=yanagita-okinawa2/>

{{lang|ja-Latn|Irō setsuden}} also records a similar tale, number 42, about {{nihongo||善縄大屋子|Yoshinawa Fuyako}}, 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.<ref name=taira/><ref name=yanagita-okinawa2/>

=== Kiso, Nagano ===
{{Further|Nezame no toko}}
[[File:Kuniyoshi Station 38.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Utagawa Kuniyoshi]], {{lang|ja-Latn|[[Fukushima-juku]]}} (one of the [[69 Stations of the Nakasendō|69 stations]] of the [[Kiso-kaidō]]).<!--、『[[中山道六十九次|木曾街道六十九次]]』。-->]]

Local legend has it that Urashima Tarō once dwelled in the mountains of Kiso, [[Nagano Prefecture|Nagano]]. This legend originated in near-modern times, from the late [[Muromachi period|Muromachi]] to [[Edo period]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson |first=William Scott |title=Walking the Kiso Road: A Modern-Day Exploration of Old Japan |publisher=Shambhala Publications |year=2015  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=454DCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA135 |pages=135–141|isbn=9780834803176 }}</ref><ref name=torii/>

Although a contrived piece of fiction, the old-style ''[[Jōruri (music)|jōruri]]'' {{nihongo||『浦嶋太郎』|Urashima Tarō}} situates its story in the vicinity of this local legend, namely [[Agematsu, Nagano|Agematsu-juku]].{{efn|Agematsu-juku is actually adjacent to Fukushima-juku of Kuniyoshi's [[ukiyo-e]] painting.}} Urashima Tarō appears here as a child born after a local couple prays to [[Togakushi Shrine|Togakushi]] [[Myōjin]]. 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.<ref name=torii>{{citation|last=Torii |first=Fumiko (島居フミ子) |title=Kiso ni yomigaetta Urashima Tarō |script-title=ja:木曾に蘇った浦島太郎 |trans-title=Urashima Tarō revived in Kiso |journal=Nihon Bungaku<!--日本文學--> |year=1992 |url=http://opac.library.twcu.ac.jp/opac/repository/1/4944/KJ00005527571.pdf |pages=32–43|language=ja}}</ref>

== 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.<ref name=seal&white /> Nevertheless, Urashima has been labeled the "Japanese Rip van Winkle", even in academic folkloristic literature.<ref name=mills /> "Urashima"{{efn|name=urashima-taro-jotai}} is also a Japanese metaphor similar to "Rip Van Winkle" for someone who feels lost in a world that has changed in their absence.<ref>Shin Wa-Ei Daijiten, 5th edition, entry "Urashima Tarō. Kenkyūsha. 2006.</ref>

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.<ref name=hearn-notes /> Japanese art collector [[William Anderson (collector)|William Anderson]] also wrote that a certain Chinese tale was closer to "Rip Van Winkle" than Urashima was.<ref name=anderson />

That Chinese analogue is the anecdote of the woodcutter Wang Zhi,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Wang Chih (王質<ref name=mayers />).}} who after watching [[Chinese immortal|immortals]] playing a board game discovers many years have passed.<ref name=anderson /> The piece is a selection in the {{illm|Shuyiji (Ren Fang){{!}}''Shuyiji''|zh|述異記 (任昉)|ja|述異記}}{{efn|''Shu i Chi''}} or "Accounts of Strange Things", and is also known as the legend of [[Ranka (legend)|Lankeshan]]{{efn|"Lan-k'o shan"}} or "Rotten Axe Handle Mountain".{{sfnp|Sugiyama|1964}}<ref name=wu-jtw-notes /> Sometimes this Chinese tale is conjectured as a possible actual source for Urashima, but there is lack of consensus among folklorists regarding their interrelationship.{{sfnp|Sugiyama|1964}}

Other cognate tales include the Irish legend of [[Oisín]]{{efn|Ossian}} who met [[Niamh (mythology)|Niamh]] and spent his life with her in [[Tír na nÓg]],{{sfnp|McKeon|1996|pp=14–15}}<ref>{{harvp|Tagaya|2011|p=99}}, citing Doi, Shinwa 1973 pp. 19–25</ref><ref name=briggs /> and the Vietnamese [[The Tale of Từ Thức Marrying a Goddess|legend of Từ Thức]], who aids a goddess arrested for plucking a peony flower during a festival.<ref name=costineanu /> 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]]'' by [[Nguyễn Dữ]].

The tale of Urashima Taro holds many similarities with tales of the international catalogue [[Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index]], 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]]. However, Hiroko Ikeda's Japanese index of folktales lists ''Urashima Taro'' as type 470*, "The Dragon Palace" or "Urashima Taroo".<ref>Hiroko Ikeda. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=EPgZAAAAIAAJ&q=urashima A Type and Motif Index of Japanese Folk-Literature]''. Folklore Fellows Communications Vol. 209. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. 1971. pp. 119-120.</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dragons, Demons and Deities: Folklore of the Kyoto by the Sea Area - Urashima Shrine, Ine|website=Another Kyoto - Official Travel Guide|date=8 December 2021|url=https://www.kyototourism.org/en/column/17773/#Urashima_Shrine_Ine|access-date=28 May 2023|archive-date=21 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521152646/https://www.kyototourism.org/en/column/17773/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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 (anime)|Urashima Tarō]]'' of the tale, premiered in 1918, is among some of the oldest [[anime]] created in Japan,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/28/2201373.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080328190335/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/28/2201373.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 March 2008|title=90yo Japanese anime recovered|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date=27 March 2008 }}</ref> the same year that Oz author [[Ruth Plumly Thompson]] adapted it as "Urashima and the Princess of the Sea" for [[Public Ledger (Philadelphia)|The Philadelphia Public Ledger]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hungrytigerpress.com/tigertales/tigertale060.shtml|title=Tiger Tales No. 60 – Urashima and the Princess of the Sea|website=www.hungrytigerpress.com|access-date=2017-07-31}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,jingle-inspirado-em-lenda-de-urashima-taro-marcou-epoca,102615|title=Jingle inspirado em lenda de Urashima Taro marcou época|website=[[Estadão]]|access-date=2021-03-30}}</ref>

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, the Giant Monster|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 ==
{{Portal|Japan|Children's literature}}

*[[Tamatebako]], an [[origami]] cube that causes the aging of Urashima Tarō in some versions of the story.
*[[Ranka (legend)|Lankeshan ji]]
* Yuri's Brush with Magic by [[Maureen Wartski]], a young adult novel that integrates the Urashima Taro myth into narrative.
*[[Isekai]], an anime and manga genre that has roots in the Urashima Tarō story.
*[[Pandora's box]], a magic box which spread disaster when opened in Greek mythology.
*[[King asleep in mountain]], several legends of people hidden away in time.
*"[[Rip Van Winkle]]"
*''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]''
*[[Kakudmi]] and [[Revati]]
*[[Herla]]
*[[Oisín]]
*[[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]]
*[[Guingamor]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist|refs=
<ref name=urashima-taro-jotai>Or {{nihongo||浦島太郎状態|"Urashima Tarō Jōtai"}}.</ref>
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|3|refs=

<ref name=akiya>{{citation|last=Akiya |first=Osamu (秋谷治) |title=Sakuhinronteki apurōchi urashima tarō: kaikontan no nagare|script-title=ja:作品論的アプローチ 浦島太郎--怪婚譚の流れ  |journal=Kokubungaku<!--國文學: 解釈と敎材の硏究--> |volume=22 |number=16 |year=1977  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4UHAQAAMAAJ |page=102}}<!--quotation=太郎の訪れた異郷が竜宮というのは御伽草子が初出である---><!--http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/8099364 --></ref>

<ref name=anderson>{{citation|last=Anderson |first=William |author-link=William Anderson (collector) |title=The Pictorial Arts of Japan and Other Writings |publisher=Synapse |year=1886 |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fu0yplKVfJAC|isbn=9784861660535 }}</ref>

<ref name=bialock>{{citation|last=Bialock |first=David |title=Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2007 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfWvoVERWREC&pg=PA89|isbn=9780804767644 }}</ref>

<ref name=briggs>{{citation|last=Briggs |first=Katharine Mary  |author-link=Katharine Mary Briggs |title=An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1976 |page=399 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=da3WAAAAMAAJ <!--|quotation=The Ossian story.. is widespread and is even to be found among the best-known of the Japanese fairy-tales, 'Urashima Taro'.-->|isbn=9780394734675  }}</ref>

<ref name="chamberlain-tr-miyao-ed">Chamberlain tr., pp. 25ff; Japanese text pp. 301ff. in {{harvp|Miyao|2009}}</ref>

<ref name=chamberlain&mason>{{citation|last1=Chamberlain |first1=Basil Hall |last2=Mason |first2=W. B.  |title=Suwara |work=A Handbook for Travellers in Japan |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons |year=1898 |pages=84–85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOMBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA84}}</ref>

<ref name=costineanu>{{citation|last= Costineanu |first=Dragomir |author-link=William Anderson (collector) |title=Origines et mythes du kabuki |publisher=Publications orientalistes de France |year=1996 |pages=45–47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fu0yplKVfJAC|isbn=9784861660535 }}</ref>

<ref name=hayashi-kampukuji>{{citation|last=Hayashi |first=Kohei (林晃平) |title=Kifu no seisei to tenkai: Nihon ni okeru hassei to tenkai |script-title=ja:亀趺の生成と展開――日本における発生と展開――|trans-title=A Generation of" Kifu"in Japan |journal=Journal of Comparative Cultures: The Journal of the Faculty of Culture, Sapporo University<!--比較文化論叢：札幌大学文化学部紀要--> |volume=28|year=2014 |pages=3–4 |url=http://www.t-komazawa.ac.jp/university/bulletin/pdf/kiyou28.pdf }}</ref>

<ref name="hayashi-kundoku">{{citation|last=Hayashi |first=Kohei (林晃平) |title='Ura-shima-ko' kundoku kanken |script-title=ja:「浦島子」 訓読管見 |trans-title=My view on kunyomi reading of Ura-shima-ko |journal=Journal of Comparative Cultures: The Journal of the Faculty of Culture, Sapporo University<!--比較文化論叢：札幌大学文化学部紀要--> |volume=11 |year=2003 |pages=97–118 |url=https://sapporo-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=4065}}</ref>

<ref name=hearn-notes>{{cite book|last=Hearn |first=Lafcadio |title=A history of English literature in a series of lectures (Notes on American Literature) |volume=2 |location=Tokyo |publisher=The Hokuseido Press |year=1927 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_trAAAAIAAJ |page=827}}</ref>

<ref name=ikeda-hiroko>{{citation|last=Ikeda |first=Hiroko |title=A Type and Motif Index of Japanese Folk-Literature |series=Ff communications 209 |year=1971 |pages=119–120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EPgZAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>

<ref name=inoue_osamu>{{citation|last=Inoue |first=Osamu (井上攻)|title=Kinsei shakai no seijuku to shukuba sekai|script-title=ja:近世社会の成熟と宿場世界|publisher=Iwata Shoin<!--岩田書院--> |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_SZNAQAAIAAJ |page=256|isbn=9784872945096}}</ref>

<ref name=kato>{{citation|last=Shūichi |first=Katō |author-link=Shūichi Katō (critic) |title=A History of Japanese Literature: The first thousand years |publisher=Kodansha America |year=1979 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AWzAAAAIAAJ |pages=52–55|isbn=9780870113079 }}</ref>

<ref name=keene>{{citation|last=Keene |first=Donald |title=Seeds in the Heart |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_DEwTJq3TbcC&pg=PA1119 |pages=1092–93, 1119, note 2|isbn=9780231114417 }}</ref>

<ref name=kenkyukai1928>{{citation|author=Yokohama kyōdoshi kenkyūkai<!--横浜郷土史研究会-->|title=Urashima Tarō no kyūseki |script-title=ja:浦島太郎の𦾔跡  |work=Yokohaman no shiseki to meishō<!--横浜の史蹟と名勝--> |year=1928 |url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1178212/44?viewMode= |pages=66–67}}</ref>

<ref name=kokutei4>{{harvp|Ashiya|1936|pp=179–182}}: reprint from ''Shogaku kokugo tokuhon'' (SKT =4th edition ''kokutei kyōkasho''), vol. 3</ref>

<ref name=kurata>{{citation|last=Kurata |first=Ichirō (倉田 一郎) |title=Kokugo to minzokugaku |script-title=ja:国語と民俗学 |publisher=Akane shobo<!--あかね書房--> |year=<!--1959– -->1961 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x4hIAAAAMAAJ |pages=55–57}}</ref>

<ref name=kyoto-u-foreign-studies>{{cite web|url=https://www.kufs.ac.jp/toshokan/chirimenbon/b_08.html |title=The Fisher-Boy Urashima |website=Crepe-Paper Books and Wood Block Prints at the Dawn of Cultural Enlightenment in Japan |author=Kyoto University of Foreign Studies |year=2007 |access-date=2017-08-22}}</ref>

<ref name=manyo-aston>{{citation|last=Aston |first=William George |author-link=William George Aston |title=A Grammar of the Japanese Written Language |publisher=Luzac |year=1904 |pages=xvi–xix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diQNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR16}}</ref>

<ref name=manyo-chamberlain>{{citation|last=Chamberlain |first=Basil Hall|author-link=Basil Hall Chamberlain |title=A The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan |publisher=Imperial University  |year=1887 |pages=20–22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aBISAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20}}</ref>

<ref name=mayers>{{citation|last=Mayers |first=William Frederick  |title=Chinese Reader's Manual |publisher=American Presbyterian mission Press |year=1874 |page=239 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LoNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA239}}: {{harvp|Anderson|1886}}'s source; gives name in Chinese characters.</ref>

<ref name=mills>{{citation|last=Mills |first=Douglas E. |title=Medieval Japanese Tales |journal=Folklore |volume=83 |number=4 |year=1972 |page=292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3cNAQAAMAAJ|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1972.9716483 }}</ref>

<ref name=miura-21>{{harvp|Miura|1989|p=21}}: "これは、『ハナハト読本』と通称され、よく知られた教科書である。(This is known colloquially as the Hanahato and is a well-known textbook)".</ref>

<ref name=mizuno-oldest>{{citation|last=Mizuno |first=Yu (水野祐) |title=Urashimakoden |script-title=ja:古代社会と浦島伝說 |trans-title=Ancient society and the Urashima legend |volume=1 |publisher=Yuzankaku |year=1975 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ybEEAAAAMAAJ |pages=60–64|language=ja}}</ref>

<ref name=okuma>{{citation|last=Okuma |first=Kiichiro (大久間喜一郎) |title=Tokoyo no kuni e no michi|script-title=ja:常世郷への途 |journal=Bulletin of Arts and Sciences, Meiji University<!--明治大学教養論集-->|volume=99 |year=1976 |url=https://m-repo.lib.meiji.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10291/8980/.../kyouyoronshu_99_1.pdf |page=17|language=ja}}</ref>

<ref name=poulton>{{citation|last=Poulton |first=M. Cody |title=Spirits of Another Sort: The Plays of Izumi Kyōka |publisher=Center for Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TlkAAAAMAAJ |page=88|isbn=9780939512010 }}</ref>

<ref name=sakamoto-annot-miyoshi>{{citation|last=Sakamoto |first=Etsurō (阪本越郎)| title=Miyoshi Tatsuji |script-title=ja:三好達治 |series=Nihon no shika (anthology of Japanese poems and songs) |publisher=[[Chuokoronsha]] |year=1975|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjTUAAAAMAAJ&q=%22%E5%A4%AA%E9%83%8E%E5%86%A0%E8%80%85%22 |page=350|isbn=9784122002173|language=ja}}</ref>

<ref name=sakata>{{citation|last=Sakata |first=Chizuko (坂田千鶴子) |title=Ryūō no musumetachi |script-title=ja:龍王の娘たち |journal=Journal of Toho Gakuen<!--東邦学誌--> |volume=32 |number=1 |year=2003 |url=http://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/contentscinii_20171002042523.pdf?id=ART0000574099 |pages=73–74}}</ref>

<ref name=sasaki-ed>{{citation|last=Sasaki |first=Nobutsuna |author-link=Sasaki Nobutsuna |title=Tango fudoki shozō |script-title=ja:丹後風土記所載 |trans-title=[Poems] contained in Tango Fudoki |work=Nihon kasen, jōko no kan |publisher=Hakubunkan |year=1975 |url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/873924 |pages=209–210|language=ja}}</ref>

<ref name=satow>{{citation|last=Satow |first=Ernest Mason |author-link=Ernest Satow |title=A Diplomat in Japan, Part II: The Diaries of Ernest Satow, 1870–1883 |publisher=Ian Ruxton |year=2009 |page=433 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXHRg_hGERcC&pg=PA433 |isbn=9780557104574}}</ref>

<ref name=seal&white>{{citation|last1=Seal |first1=Graham |last2=White |first2=Kim Kennedy |title=Folk Heroes and Heroines around the World |edition=2 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2016 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1WaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |isbn=978-1-4408-3861-3}}</ref>

<ref name=sharf>{{citation|last=Sharf |first=Frederic Alan  |title=Takejiro Hasegawa: Meiji Japan's Preeminent Publisher of Wood-block-illustrated Crepe-paper Books |place=Salem |publisher=Peabody Essex Museum |year=1994 |series=Peabody Essex Museum Collections, vol. 130 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yTrAAAAMAAJ |page=62}}</ref>

<ref name=shirane>{{citation|last=Shirane |first=Haruo |title=Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Io2OOXjJhFcC&pg=PA148 |pages=148149, 195 n30|isbn=9780231526524 }}, citing "Urashima Tarō" in ''Otogi zōshi'', Ichiko Teiji (1958) ed., ''Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei'' '''38''', pp. 340–341</ref>

<ref name=shigematsu-oldest>{{citation|last=Shigematsu |first=Akihisa (重松明久) |title=Urashimakoden |script-title=ja:浦島子傳 |trans-title=The Legend of Urashimako |publisher=Gendai Shichōsha |year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Na3SAAAAMAAJ|pages=107–108|language=ja}}</ref>

<ref name=suzuki-t>{{citation|last=Suzuki |first=Tomi |title=The Tale of Genji, National Literature, Language, and Modernism |work=Envisioning The Tale of Genji: Media, Gender, and Cultural Production |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ITRIvGT0SGsC&pg=PA263 |page=263|isbn=9780231513463 }}</ref>

<ref name=tablada>{{citation|last=Tablada |first=José Juan |author-link=José Juan Tablada |title=En el país del sol |volume=VIII |publisher=[[Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México]] |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0_J1HqIqroC&pg=PA155 |page=155, n27 |isbn=9789703225842}}</ref>

<ref name=taira>{{citation|last=Taira |first=Sunao (平良直) |title=Nantō no denshō ni okeru utaki: Kyūyō gaikan irō setsuden ni okeru utaki no kaishaku wo chūshin ni |script-title=ja:南島の伝承における御獄(ウタキ) : 「球陽外巻遺老説伝」における御獄の解釈を中心に  |trans-title=Holy Place "Utaki" in Tradition of Okinawa Islanders |journal=Asian Folklore Studies<!-- 比較民俗研究--> |volume=11 |year=1995 |pages=182–183|hdl=2241/14337 }}</ref>

<ref name="urano&fukatsu">{{citation|last1=Urano |first1=Satoshi (浦野聡) |last2=Fukatsu|first2=Yukinori (深津行徳)|title=Jinbun shiryōgaku no genzai I |script-title=ja:人文資料学の現在 I |publisher=Shumpusha<!--春風社--> |year=2006  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9ntujlTOHoC&pg=PA294 |pages=294–6|isbn=9784861100635 }}</ref>

<ref name=waterhouse>{{citation|last=Waterhouse |first=David B. |title=Images of eighteenth-century Japan: ukiyoe prints from the Sir Edmund Walker Collection |publisher=Royal Ontario Museum |year=1975 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BS3rAAAAMAAJ |page=122|isbn=9780888541703 }}</ref>

<ref name=wu-jtw-notes>{{citation|last=Wu |first=Cheng'en  |title=Journey to the West |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1980 |page=505, n13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2aasDuXK5EC&pg=PA505|isbn=9780226971506 }}</ref>

<ref name="yanagita-okinawa">{{citation|last=Yanagita  |first=Kunio |author-link=Kunio Yanagita  |title=Kainan shōki |script-title=ja:海南小記 |publisher=Ōokayama shoten<!--大岡山書店--> |year=1925 |url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1871757 |pages=225–7}}</ref>

<ref name="yanagita-okinawa2">{{citation|last=Yanagita  |first=Kunio |author-link=Kunio Yanagita |title=Kaijō no michi |script-title=ja:海上の道 |work=Okinawa bunka ronsō 2<!--沖繩文化論叢 2--> |publisher=Heibonsha |year=1971 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbMLAAAAMAAJ
|pages=46, 71}}</ref>
}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{citation|last=Akima |first=Toshio|title=The Myth of the Goddess of the Undersea World and the Tale of Empress Jingu's Subjugation of Silla |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=20 |year=1993 |issue=2–3|citeseerx=10.1.1.691.6616|doi=10.18874/jjrs.20.2-3.1993.95-185}}
*{{citation|last=Ashiya |first=Shigetsune (蘆谷重常 ) |title=Kokka kyōkasho ni arawaretaru kokumin setsuwa no kenkyuū  |script-title=ja:国定教科書に現れたる国民説話の研究 |trans-title=Research on folk tales found in nationally designated textbooks |publisher=Kyozaisha  |year=1936  |url=http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1462184 |pages=179–215|language=ja}}
*{{cite book|last=Aston |first=William George |author-link=William George Aston |title=Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 |volume=1 |place=London |publisher=Japan Society of London |year=1896 |page=368 |isbn=9780524053478 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1IJrNAKBpycC&pg=PA368}}
* {{citation|last=Chamberlain |first=B. H. |author-link=Basil Hall Chamberlain |others=[[Kobayashi Eitaku]] (illustr.)<!--unattributed in the printed book--> |title=The Fisher-boy Urashima |publisher=T. Hasegawa, Kōbunsha<!--[[:ja:長谷川武次郎]], 弘文社--> |year=1886 |series=Japanese Fairy Tale Series 8 |url=https://archive.org/stream/fisherboyurashim00chamiala}}; [https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667139/ alt copy] @ Library of Congress
* {{cite thesis|type=M. A. |last=Holmes |first=Yoshiko |title=Chronological Evolution of the Urashima Tarō Story and its Interpretation |publisher=Victoria University of Wellington |year=2014 |url=http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/3589/thesis.pdf?sequence=2}}
*{{citation|last=Hayashi |first=Kouhei (林晃平) |title=Urashima densetsu ni okeru gazō no mondai |script-title=ja:浦島伝説における画像の諸問題 |trans-title=Various issues on images in the Urashima legend |journal=Proceedings of the International Conference on Japanese Literature in Japan. <!--国際日本文学研究集会会議録-->  |volume=24 |year=2001 |pages=33–54 |url=https://kokubunken.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2633&file_id=22&file_no=1|language=ja}}
* {{citation|last=Hayashi |first=Kouhei (林晃平) |title=Iwayuru otogizōshi Urashimatarō no tenkai: kin'nen ni okeru shohon kenkyū to sono yukue wo meguri |script-title=ja:所謂御伽草子「浦島太郎」の展開－近年における諸本研究とその行方をめぐり－  |trans-title=The Development of Otogizoushi "Urashima Taro" |journal=Bulletin of Tomakomai Komazawa University<!--苫小牧駒澤大学紀要--> |volume=24 |year=2011 |url=http://www.t-komazawa.ac.jp/university/bulletin/pdf/kiyou24.pdf |pages=1–37|language=ja}}
* {{citation|last=Hayashi |first=Kouhei (林晃平) |title=Okkusufōdo daigaku zō emaki Urashimatarō no honkoku to kaidai  |script-title=ja:オックスフォード大学蔵絵巻「浦島太郎」の翻刻と解題 |trans-title=The Tale of Urashima in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford  |journal=Bulletin of Tomakomai Komazawa University<!--苫小牧駒澤大学紀要--> |volume=27 |year=2013 |url=http://www.t-komazawa.ac.jp/university/bulletin/pdf/kiyou27.pdf |pages=1–31|language=ja}}
* {{citation|last=Hayashi |first=Kouhei (林晃平) |title=Tamatebako no kitashi kata: Urashima densetsu imēji no keisei |script-title=ja:玉手箱の来し方―浦島伝説イメージの形成― |trans-title=The Origin of the Tamatebako  |journal=Bulletin of Tomakomai Komazawa University<!--苫小牧駒澤大学紀要--> |volume=31 |year=2016 |url=http://www.t-komazawa.ac.jp/university/bulletin/pdf/kiyou31.pdf |pages=1–31|language=ja}}
* {{citation|last=Makino |first=Yoko (牧野陽子) |title=Unasaka no fūkei:Hān to Chenbaren sorezore no Urashima densetsu (1) |script-title=ja:海界の風景〜ハーンとチェンバレンそれぞれの浦島伝説〜（一）|trans-title="Past the bounds of Ocean" : The Legend of Urashima as told by L. Hearn and B. S. Chamberlain (1)|journal=Seijo University Economic Papers <!--成城大學經濟研究--> |volume=191 |year=2011 |pages=138–116 |url=https://seijo.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2282&file_id=18&file_no=1|language=ja}}
* {{citation|last=McKeon |first=Midori Yamamoto |title=The Urashima Legend: Changing Gender Representations in a Japanese Tale |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |year=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQxNAQAAMAAJ}}
*{{citation|last=Miura |first=Sukeyuki (三浦佑之) |title=Urashima Tarō no bungakushi: ren'ai shōsetsu no hassei  |script-title=ja:浦島太郎の文学史: 恋愛小說の発生 |trans-title=Urashima Taro's literary history: emergence of the romance novel |publisher=Goryu Shoin  |year=1989  |isbn=9784906010363 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HRzUAAAAMAAJ|language=ja}}
*{{cite book|editor-last=Miyao |editor-first=Yoshio |editor-link=:ja:宮尾與男 |translator-last=Chamberlain |translator-first=Basil Hall |translator-link=Basil Hall Chamberlain |others=Kobayashi Eitaku<!--小林永濯 1843-1890--> (illustr.) |chapter=Urashima |title=Taiyaku nihon mukashibanashishū |script-title=ja:対訳日本昔噺集 |trans-title=Japanese Fairy Tale Series |volume=2 |publisher=Sairyūsha<!--彩流社--> |date=2009   |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pT80AQAAIAAJ |pages=25ff, 301ff |isbn=<!--4779113717, -->9784779113710|language=en, ja}}
* {{citation|last=Nakashima |first=Mayumi (中嶋真弓) |title=Shōgakkō kokugo kyōkasho kyōzai 'Urashima Tarō' sairoku no hensen |script-title=ja:小学校国語教科書教材「浦島太郎」採録の変遷 |trans-title=Changes in the inclusion of the story of Urashima Taro in Japanese-language educational materials for primary schools |journal=Bulletin of Aichi Shukutoku University, Faculty of Letters, Graduate School of Letters<!--愛知淑徳大学論集一文学部・文学研究科篇--> |number=35 |year=2010 |url=http://aska-r.aasa.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10638/632/1/0021-035-201003-057-078.pdf |pages=129}}
* {{citation|last=Satomi |first=Shigemi (里見繁美) |title=Hān no Urashima densetsu ni taisuru ninshiki :washinton āvingu no sakuhin wo kijiku ni |script-title=ja:ハーンの浦島伝説に対する認識―ワシントン.アーヴィングの作品を基軸に― |trans-title=Hearn's conception of Urashima Legend: with Washington Irving's works as base |journal=Hikaku Bungaku, the Journal of Comparative Literature of JCLA<!--比較文学--> |volume=44 |year=2001 |pages=99–111 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/hikaku/44/0/44_99/_article/-char/ja/|language=ja}}
* {{citation|editor-last=Seki |editor-first=Keigo |others=Robert J. Adams (tr.) |title=Urashima Taro |work=Folktales of Japan |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1963 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wInfAAAAMAAJ |pages=111–114|isbn=9780226746159 }}
** (reprinted in) {{citation|editor-last=Tatar |editor-first=Maria |title=Urashima Taro |work=Beauty and the Beast: Classic Tales About Animal Brides and Grooms |publisher=Penguin |year=2017 |pages=167–171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J195DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167|isbn=9781101992951 }}
* {{citation|last=Sugiyama |first=Yoko |title=Time and folk literature: a comparative study |journal=East-West Review |volume=1 |number=2 <!--|season=autumn--> |year=1964 |pages=145–166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fu0yplKVfJAC |isbn=9784861660535 }}
* {{citation|last=Tagaya |first=Yuko |title=Far Eastern Islands and their Myths: Japan |work=Islands and Cities in Medieval Myth, Literature, and History: Papers Delivered at the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, in 2005, 2006, and 2007 |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2011 |pages=91–112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wnO4dqTdtmkC&pg=PA91|isbn=9783631611654 }}
* {{citation|last=Takanashi |first=Kenkichi (高梨健吉) |title=Chembaren no eiyaku Urashima |script-title=ja:チェンバレンの英訳浦島 |trans-title=Chamberlain's translation of Urashima |journal=Eibungaku Kenkyū (英学史研究) |volume=1989 |number=1 |year=1989 |pages=113–127 |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jeigakushi1969/1989/21/1989_21_113/_pdf}} (In Japanese and some English)
{{Refend}}

*

== 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 ==
{{Commons category|Urashima Taro}}

* {{Wikisourcelang-inline|en|The Japanese Fairy Book/The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad|The Story of Urashima Taro, the Fisher Lad}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120519083417/http://www.rickwalton.com/folktale/japan03.htm Urashima Tarō] (in English)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120209205205/http://www.adamlilith.net/japan/urashima/urashima.htm The legend of Urashima Tarō in 24 images] painted on a wall near Lake Saroma in Hokkaido
* [https://archive.org/stream/mythologicaljapa00otto#page/28/mode/1up ''Urashima Tarō''] (in English), from ''Mythological Japan'' (1873)
* [http://exhibits.lib.byu.edu/japanese/mainpage.php?click=scroll BYU Special Collections scroll exhibit], featuring a flash presentation of a scroll depicting the story of Urashima Tarō

{{Japanese folklore long}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Fiction about time travel]]
[[Category:Japanese folklore]]
[[Category:Japanese fairy tales]]
[[Category:Japanese legends]]
[[Category:Works about old age]]
[[Category:Dragons in fairy tales]]
[[Category:Fairy tales about princesses]]
[[Category:Portal fantasy]]
[[Category:ATU 460-499]]
[[Category:ATU 650-699]]
[[Category:Fictional fishers]]
[[Category:Fictional characters displaced in time]]