Urashima Tarō (浦島太郎) is a Japanese otogi-zōshi in one volume.
Date, genre and title
Urashima Tarō was composed during the Muromachi period. [1] It is a work of the otogi-zōshi genre. [1] Most of the surviving manuscripts of the work give its title as simply Urashima, written in hiragana. [1]
Plot
Urashima Tarō of Tango Province spares the life of a turtle he has caught and releases it. [1] The next day a beautiful woman arrives on a small boat, and requests Tarō escort her back to her country. [1] He takes her to her home in the Dragon Palace, and becomes her husband. [1] Three years later, he becomes homesick and requests her leave to go visit his home. [1] His wife protests, but allows him to return home for time, admitting that she is the turtle [a] he saved and entrusting him with a box as a keepsake, which she warns him never to open. [1] On Tarō's return to his home, he learns to his shock that 700 years have passed. [1] Without thinking, he opens the box he had received from his wife, and from it emerges purple cloud [b] and his form changes. [1] [c] He becomes a crane and at Hōrai meets again with the turtle. [1] [d] After this, he appears as the god Urashima-myōjin (浦島明神). [1]
Textual tradition
The work is generally in one kan (scroll or book). [1] It survives in numerous manuscripts, including:
- a fragmentary picture scroll in the holdings of the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum, dating to the middle of the Muromachi period and including only the latter portion of the work; [1]
- a picture scroll from the late Muromachi period, also in the holdings of the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum; [1]
- a manuscript in the holdings of the Dai-Tōkyū Kinen Bunko (大東急記念文庫); [1]
- the Takayasu-kyūzō-bon (高安旧蔵本), which is of a different textual line to the above three copies; [1]
- the Tokushi-kyūzō-bon (禿氏旧蔵本), which is close to the later printed text (see below); [1]
- a manuscript in the holdings of the Akagi Archive (赤木文庫, Akagi-bunko), which is of the same line as the printed text. [1]
It was also printed as part of the Otogi-Zōshi Nijūsan-pen (御伽草子二十三編). [1]
There is also a picture scroll containing no text, the Urashima-shin Emaki (浦島神絵巻). [1]
Notes
- ^ Some texts have her as the daughter of the Dragon King (竜女, ryūnyo) or as Oto-hime. [1]
- ^ Some texts have smoke or white mist. [1]
- ^ Picture scrolls from the mid- Muromachi period, but not later, have smoke from his funeral pyre seen in the Dragon Palace, and Oto-hime transforming into a turtle to come and mourn him herself. [1]
- ^ Picture scrolls from the late Muromachi period end the story here. [1]
References
Works cited
- Fujii, Takashi (1983). "Urashima Tarō". Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典 (in Japanese). Vol. 1. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. p. 318. OCLC 11917421.