Once upon a time there lived in this village a young man named Urashima Taro, a fisherman by trade.

One day he saw some children hitting and kicking a big turtle on the shore. Taro, a kind-hearted lad, stopped them at once and released the poor creature into the water.

A few days later, the turtle came back to Taro while he was fishing on the rock as usual.

“Taro, Taro, Urashima Taro!” called the turtle. “It was very good of you to have helped me.”

“It was nothing, pet,” answered Taro.

“My Lady wants to see you to say thank you. Won’t you come on my back to her palace?” asked the turtle.

The young man, out of curiosity, accepted the offer. Soon he was on the way to the palace called Ryugu, following a fascinating course deep under the blue-green sea.

“Here we are,” said the turtle, in front of the most magnificent palace imaginable.

Taro, entering the palace, was even more enchanted by the Lady herself - Queen Otohime. He was simply overjoyed when he was welcomed with open arms by this beauty of beauties.

   Statue of Urashima Taro and tortoise

Otohime expressed her heartfelt thanks by entertaining him with loving kindness. How the young man enjoyed her company in this heavenly palace where all the lovely deep-sea creatures never tired of singing and dancing around him, serving him with the most delicious food and drink he had ever tasted!

His pleasure was such that he never knew a long time had passed since he left home and his parents.

One day, he happened to think of them. He found his longing for them growing and growing every day, until at last he decided to go home, leaving Otohime and her paradise he had loved so long.

At the farewell party, Otohime generously produced a very, very precious-looking treasure-chest of pearls and corals.

“This is my present to you, Taro,” said the Lady to her departing friend. “Please remember me sometimes.”

Taro thankfully received the beautiful gift and promised that he would never forget her and the kindnesses she had done for him.

Then Otohime said: “It is very good of you to say so. But there is one more promise you must make to me - never, never take the lid off the chest.”

Taro nodded and assured her that he would never do so.

Soon Taro was hurrying home on the back of the dear old turtle.

He was wild with joy when he saw his old village again! He looked all round, then he rushed to his home. But where was everyone?

He ran all over, looking wildly for his parents, brothers, sisters and friends, but all in vain. All he saw were total strangers in and around strange houses.

Heart-broken, Taro cried and cried, but his grief only attracted more strangers. They asked Taro who he was and what was making him cry so. Taro told them about himself, his home and his parents.

Then an aged man stepped out of the crowd and said to him: “Well, young man, I remember hearing about ‘Urashima Taro’ when I was a very little boy. My great-grandfather often told us about ‘Urashima Taro,’ a young man who got lost long ago. No one could ever tell why, and in the end he was given up for dead.

But isn’t it strange that Urashima Taro....”

Taro suddenly realized that he had spent hundreds of years at Otohime’s palace, even if he was still the same young man he had been when he left home long, ago...

Taro resigned himself. He managed to live on, fishing every day on his old rock. But was he really fishing? He was just waiting and waiting for the turtle, dreaming of its bringing him back to Otohime again.

It was a very sad day when he saw the dead body of his dear old turtle lying among the flotsam and jetsam on the shore. How he regretted having left Otohime and her paradise! How he cherished and hugged the chest of pearls and corals, the only memory of his happiest days! But it was too late.

He was lonely, sometimes helplessly lonely. One day he got desperate, too desperate to recall the promise he had made to Otohime. He lifted the lid of the chest!

Out came puffs of white smoke, which turned the strapping youth into an old man with all his hair, beard and eyebrows as white as snow. Taro tottered around in despair and soon dropped dead.