Urashima Taro

Once in the seacoast of Japan was a young fisherman whose name was Urashima Taro.

One day, as he was about to go fishing, Urashima found some children teasing a turtle.

Annoyed, Urashima chased away the kids and he took the turtle with him and let it back into the sea.

The next day when Urashima was about to go to the sea a huge turtle came near him. Urashtra was surprised. 

The turtle spoke to him. "The little turtle that you saved yesterday is the daughter of Ryujin, the Emperor of the Sea. Ryujin wants to see you and thank you for your kind deed."

Urashima was overwhelmed because Ryujin was the deity of the sea. 

Urashima naturally agreed to the turtle.

Thereafter the turtle was able to magically help Urashima grow gills. 

With that, the huge turtle and Urashima were both able to go to the bottom of the sea. 

That was where Urashima found the Ryugu-jo - the Palace of the Dragon God.

The palace of the Dragon God and the place around it was beautiful, the walls were made of coral, the trees had emerald leaves and berries were actually ruby. The fishes there had scales of silver and the dragon's had tails made of pure gold.

There Urashima saw that the small turtle that he had saved on the sea coast was Otohime, a lovely princess who was the daughter of Ryujin, the Dragon God.

Urashima and Otohime stayed together for three happy years. 

But after that Urashima felt homesick. He wanted to see his family. 

Otohime was slightly unhappy with this but she made arrangements for Urashima to go back to land. 

Otohime gave him a beautiful box just before he was to leave for the land. 

This box was called tamatebako or katami no hako. Tamatebako means the jeweled box. Katami no hako means a memento box.

"The box would keep you safe as long as you have it with you." Otohime was worried as she studied Urashima anxiously. "Please do not open the box under any circumstances."

Urashima grabbed the box and got on the back of the same huge turtle which had brought him to the bottom of the sea.

Urashima went back to the sea coast on land.

Once on land,  Urashima was shocked. 

He could not recognise anything in his place. His home did not exist, his parents were not there and no one knew about him. 

He asked the people there whether anybody knew about Urashima Taro. 

The people were surprised on hearing his question. They told him that someone with that name had vanished into the sea a long time ago. 

That was when Urashima realized that his three years in the palace of the Dragon God under sea had actually lasted for three hundred years on land.

Urashima was grief stricken. 

He forgot the clear instructions of the princess because he did not know what to do. 

He opened the box that the princess had given him, 

A cloud of smoke emerged from the box and it engulfed Urashima. 

Suddenly Urashima could not walk or talk. He found it difficult to breathe. 

He crawled towards the water to see his reflection.

He was shocked to see that he was now an old man. 

A sad voice came from the sea. "I asked you not to open the box because the box stored your old age."

(In some versions of the story Urashima stayed for three days in the undersea palace of the Dragon God.

Further the princess tells Urashima that if he opens the box he will never be able to see her. When Urashima comes back to the land and is not able to find anything that he identifies, he wants to go back to the palace under sea. Urashima thought that the box would get him back to the palace under the sea. That was one of the reasons for him to open the box in some versions of the story.)

Adapted from Japanese folk tales