Urashima Taro Fairy Tale

Long ago, in a small seaside village in Japan, there lived a young fisherman named Urashima Taro. He lived with his old mother in a tiny house. Every day before dawn Taro got into his boat and went out to sea to fish. The villagers respected him for his kindness and honesty.

One evening, on his way home from fishing, Taro saw a noisy group of children on the beach. They had turned a little turtle onto its back and were poking it with sticks and laughing at it. The turtle waved its legs helplessly and could not get back to the sea.

"Children, stop that!" said Taro. "It is alive, and you are hurting it." He gave the children a few fish and bought the turtle from them. Then he gently picked it up, carried it to the water and let it go. "Swim home, and be careful."

The next day, while Taro was fishing far out at sea, a big turtle rose out of the water. "Urashima Taro, yesterday you saved my child. The daughter of the Sea King, Princess Otohime, wishes to thank you. She invites you to visit the Dragon Palace," said the turtle in a human voice.

Taro was amazed, but his curiosity won, and he climbed onto the turtle's back. The turtle dived down into the deep. And wonder of wonders, Taro could breathe easily under the water. Colourful fish swam all around, and coral forests swayed gently.

At last they reached a marvellous palace on the seabed. Its walls were made of coral, its roof of pearls and its doors of shining shells. On the four sides of the palace were all four seasons at once: spring flowers bloomed in the east, green summer trees grew in the south, red autumn leaves glowed in the west, and white winter snow lay in the north.

Princess Otohime welcomed Taro joyfully. She was beautiful and kind. A feast with the most delicious food was held in his honour. Fish danced, octopuses played music and jellyfish glowed like lanterns. Taro stayed at the palace for three days and forgot about everything else.

But on the fourth day he remembered his mother and grew homesick. "Thank you, Princess. But my mother is alone at home, waiting for me. Please let me go back," he said.

Otohime was sad, but she did not hold him back. She handed Taro a small, beautiful lacquered box tied with a red silk cord. "Take this to remember me by. But promise me you will never open it. If you do, a great misfortune will happen," said the princess. And Taro promised.

The turtle carried Taro back to the shore. He looked around, and everything had changed. The houses in the village were different, the roads were different and the people were strangers. Where his house had stood, an old pine tree was growing.

He went up to an old man. "Grandfather, where is the house of the fisherman Urashima Taro?" The old man thought. "Urashima Taro? I heard about him from my grandfather when I was little. They say that three hundred years ago a young fisherman went out to sea and never came back. His mother waited for him for many years and then died." Taro understood: three days at the bottom of the sea had been three hundred years on land.

Not knowing what to do in his grief, Taro sat down on the shore and looked at the box. "Perhaps there is something inside that will set everything right," he thought. And forgetting his promise, he untied the cord and opened the lid.

A puff of white smoke burst out of the box. As it wrapped round Taro, his hair turned white, his face became wrinkled and his back grew bent. In a moment he had become an old man with a white beard. The princess had kept his youth inside that box.

In Japan this tale is still told to children today. It teaches two things: never break a promise, and value your time, for it never comes back. And the turtles on the seashore, they say, still remember Taro's kindness.