"Urashima.” Japanese fairy tales, Teresa Peirce Williston, Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co, 1904, pp. 49-55.

Tale Summary

There was once a boy named Urashima who loved the sea, and one day while fishing accidentally pulled aboard a wrinkled old turtle instead of a fish. He kindly let the animal go back into the water, and from the spray a beautiful girl rose and stepped onto the boat. She told him that she was the very same turtle he had helped moments before, and that she was the daughter of the sea-god, who sent her to test his kindness. She invited him to the dragon palace below the waves, and together they traveled there. The palace gleamed with all the lights of the sea, and everywhere silver fish were there to serve them. Urashima lived blissfully with the Dragon Princess for four years, but began to miss his home and loved ones on land. Without being told, she knew his wish. She gave him a little pearl box to take with him so that he could come back, and warned him to never open it or he could never return. He rowed back to his father’s cottage, but it was gone, and he saw only strange faces in his old town. He asked an old man what had happened and where his home had gone, and learned that it had been four hundred years since he had left. He mourned his loved ones and knew he must return to the dragon palace, but could not remember the way back. Forgetting the Dragon Princess’s warning, he opened the box. A white cloud rose and floated over the waves, and he began to suddenly grow old. The years caught up with him and he melted away, leaving only the little box.