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Updated: June 29, 2025
When Urashima heard these strange words he was frightened, and said: "Please, please, you must not joke with me, I am greatly perplexed. I am really Urashima Taro, and I certainly have not lived three hundred years. Till four or five days ago I lived on this spot. Tell me what I want to know without more joking, please."
"Indeed," said Urashima, "that is very polite of you. Come up into the boat. I would offer you a smoke, but as you are a tortoise doubtless you do not smoke," and the fisherman laughed at the joke. "Indeed," said Urashima, "I regret very much that I have no "sake" in my boat to offer you, but come up and dry your back in the sun tortoises always love to do that."
His father had been a fisherman before him, and his skill had more than doubly descended to his son, for Urashima was the most skillful fisher in all that country side, and could catch more Bonito and Tai in a day than his comrades could in a week. But in the little fishing village, more than for being a clever fisher of the sea was he known for his kind heart.
So the tortoise climbed into the boat, the fisherman helping him, and after an exchange of complimentary speeches the tortoise said: "Have you ever seen Rin Gin, the Palace of the Dragon King of the Sea, Urashima?"
The palace was built of coral and adorned with pearls, and the beauties and wonders of the place were so great that the tongue fails to describe them. But, to Urashima, more wonderful than the palace was the garden that surrounded it.
Are you Urashima Taro?" "Yes," said the fisherman, "I am Urashima Taro!" "Ha, ha!" laughed the man, "you must not make such jokes. It is true that once upon a time a man called Urashima Taro did live in this village, but that is a story three hundred years old. He could not possibly be alive now!"
And each day there were new joys and new wonders for Urashima, and so great was his happiness that he forgot everything, even the home he had left behind and his parents and his own country, and three days passed without his even thinking of all he had left behind.
When it appeared to Urashima that several weeks had passed in this pleasant land, he begged permission of the Princess to return home and see his parents. "They will be sorrowing for me," he said. "They will fear that I am lost, and drowned at sea." At last she allowed him to go, and she gave him a casket, but told him to keep it closed.
One of the older boys answered: "Who cares whether it lives or dies? We do not. Here, boys, go on, go on!" And they began to treat the poor tortoise more cruelly than ever. Urashima waited a moment, turning over in his mind what would be the best way to deal with the boys.
The red bream, the flounder, the sole, the cuttlefish, and all the chief vassals of the Dragon King of the Sea now came out with courtly bows to welcome the stranger. "Urashima Sama, Urashima Sama! welcome to the Sea Palace, the home of the Dragon King of the Sea. Thrice welcome are you, having come from such a distant country. And you, Mr.
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