Talk:Urashima Tarō

circumflexes
i think thats the right word. anyway, i thought all wikis were to drop circumflexes and instead either just use the single letter or letter+u, Like Tarō being Taro or Tarou. most people dont use the circumflex when they search wikipedia which is why i thought it was dropped. --208.71.219.193 (talk) 05:15, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Related Chinese Story
This would be a good reference if I could find anything on it. There was an old Chinese story that translated into "The Flowering Peach Tree" about a man who follows a woman into the mountains & lives there for what he feels is a short time, but he gets lonely for his family & leaves & his wife (the lady he followed) told him he could never return because that place could only be found once. He returns home to discover his friends & family long dead. I can't remember how it ended. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.161.122.193 (talk) 23:00, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Love Hina connection
When Keitaro brought Mutsumi Otohime back to her house he recieved an gift from her. Which was an box with an turtle in it, but he had to open it on the way home.

Cowboy Bebop
In My Funny Valentine, I believe, Jet told the story to Ed towards the beginning of the episode. In a meta-sense, it symbolized Faye's life. So the Cowboy Bebop mention is accurate, but I have no idea how to cite it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 143.67.168.4 (talk) 17:26, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

Also, it might be noted that the anime Dokuro-chan parodies this story in season 2, episode 3-4. It's really funny actually. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Serendipity0000 (talk • contribs) 02:31, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Moral
I always wondered about this story's moral. The story itself is quite disturbing to me. Maybe I needed to have been born Asian or something to understand it. It simply makes no sense.

In a simple break-down of a story, a young man saves a turtle that was being picked on. For his benevolence he is lured into a magical kingdom where time passes. Furthermore, he receives a box he was never to open. (Can we say the forbidden fruit of Eden?) And when he does, (If the princess didn't want the box to be opened, why give it to Urashima Taro? You might say it was a "test" of some sort, but is this a way to reward the person who saved you?), he turns into an old man.

The Japanese people I talk to say that Urashima Taro shouldn't have opened the box. He shouldn't have gone to the magical palace. (That a large turtle told him to?) Urashima Taro was greedy. (Was it his greed and selfishness that caused him to save the turtle?)

So in the end, what is the moral if this story? "Never save turtles that are being picked on?" "Saving turtles and then taking the rewards they give you makes you greedy? And thus you will deserve to be turned into an old man and never see your parents again?"

Perhaps I'm missing something...

Kogejoe (talk) 01:53, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

As for why the princess gave him the box, my impression is maybe Urashima needed that box. Maybe, if he would not have taken the box, he would have turned in an old man the instant he left the palace, in which case the princess would have given the box to prevent this from happening. But I guess this is just a hopeful thought. :)

And about the story's moral, does there really have to be one? I don't go lengths to find a moral just for the sake of having one, because maybe the story was passed on for the sole purpose of being an entertaining or intriguing story to the people at that time.

According to some other people on the net, the moral may be "listen to those wiser than you" or "we should not sacrifice the things we have gained to try to get back the things we feel we have lost" or "you should think carefully before doing something important" or "nothing is more important than real life", to name a few. I believe all writers of these examples where non-Japanese though.

Spencer.vdM (talk) 20:02, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Clannad?
I noticed Clannad in the list of references/adaptations of this fable, but I'm unsure as to how it's similar to it. Please explain, if you understand why.--Axyraandas (talk) 20:51, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

Clannad just contains a very tiny reference. Since Nagisa had to repeat the school year, all her friends graduated and left her behind, she (jokingly?) compares her loneliness to Urashima Taro. Some subtitles changed the reference to Rip Van Winkle for Western audiences. Probably best to remove Clannad from the list, because it's really just that one tiny reference. 66.245.192.22 (talk) 08:36, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

Versions?
A Wikipedia article should not be presenting a popular version of the story originating in a medieval story book as the "true" version and the others as "variations as always with folklore". We should first give the different variations as they appear in the ancient records (MYS, TKF, NS[?]), perhaps giving each its own section/subsection, and only then give the version appearing in the much later and probably derivative Muromachi otogizōshi Urashima Tarō. Hijiri 88 ( 聖やや ) 11:22, 18 June 2015 (UTC)


 * I agree with Hijiri88 to a point. I see a problem with giving "A popular version" of indeterminate identity as the "true" version, without giving any information about who or when that retold version was composed.


 * What I'm going to do is to give , which several sources will say is Iwaya Sazanami's version, or what is generally regarded to be a condensed adaptation thereof, that appeared in Meiji Period textbooks or readers. The earlier versions can be discussed aftewards. For example, Little Red Riding Hood is done that way. --Kiyoweap (talk) 19:06, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

gills
I am unable to confirm the bit of detail that Urashima was magically given a (pair of) gills while being submerged (edit of by), except in a retold version (in Mayo, Margaret and Jane Ray, The Orchard Book of Magical Tales, p. 29, 33, etc. cited and summarized in Wallace, Mark, Fukushima). So I am going to remove it. This is not a feature in any of the widely known versions anyway.

It will be replaced by the detail that Urashima "grew gills and leaped into the sea" in an alternate ending, given in Sherman, Howard J, World Folklore for Storytellers, p. 216, and since it cites anthologies by Dorson and by Seki who are known folklorists. I have not been able to identify this version though. --Kiyoweap (talk) 10:04, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Top Image
The File:Kuniyoshi Station 38.jpg image, although people may want to choose as top image for purely aesthetic reasons, I do not think this a good choice.

This is entiled Fukushima-juku along the Kiso path which is in the middle of the mountains nowhere close to sea.

It has to do with local legend around there, not the typical Urashima folktale or legend. --Kiyoweap (talk) 04:35, 11 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Belated update but I moved the image in large size to Nezame no toko (i.e., the tale set in the Kiso Mountains), which should be considered a daughter article of Urashima Tarō. I still retain a reduced size image but I placed it in the Urashima Tarō section. --Kiyoweap (talk) 10:01, 28 February 2018 (UTC)

Fairy Tale or Legend?
What's different on this short story that makes it a fairy tale instead of a legend??, the similar chinese story "Ranka" is refered to as a legend (published in a book called Tales of the strange mind you). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranka_(legend) Wonder if it started as a legend and became mostly an explicit fairy tale by the edo period or so. Mirad1000 (talk) 19:26, 29 March 2023 (UTC)