    is a japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to ryÅ«gÅ«-jÅ, the palace of ryÅ«jin, the dragon god, under the sea. he stays there for three days and, upon his return to his village, finds himself 300 years in the future. ==history== the name urashima tarÅ first appears in the 15th century (the muromachi period), in a genre of illustrated popular fiction known as otogizÅshi; however, the story itself is much older, dating back to the 8th century (the nara period). older sources such as nihon shoki, man'yÅshÅ«  and tango no kuni fudoki (ä¸¹å¾å½é¢¨åè¨) refer to urashima tarÅ as urashimako. the change from urashimako to urashima tarÅ reflects a shift in japanese naming customs; while the suffix -ko ("child") was originally used in both male and female names, in medieval times it was largely restricted to female names, and replaced by -tarÅ ("great youth") in male names. the story bears a striking similarity to folktales from other cultures, including the american legend of rip van winkle, irish legend of oisÃ­n, and the earlier chinese legend of ranka. ==story== one day a young fisherman named urashima tarÅ is fishing when he notices a group of children torturing a small turtle. tarÅ saves it and lets it to go back to the sea. the next day, a huge turtle approaches him and tells him that the small turtle he had saved is the daughter of the emperor of the sea, ryÅ«jin, who wants to see him to thank him. the turtle magically gives tarÅ gills and brings him to the bottom of the sea, to the palace of the dragon god (ryÅ«gÅ«-jÅ). there he meets the emperor and the small turtle, who was now a lovely princess, otohime.  tarÅ stays there with her for a few days, but soon wants to go back to his village and see his aging mother, so he requests otohime's permission to leave. the princess says she is sorry to see him go, but wishes him well and gives him a mysterious box called tamatebako which will protect him from harm but which she tells him never to open. tarÅ grabs the box, jumps on the back of the same turtle that had brought him there, and soon is at the seashore. when he g
Japanese_fairy_tales Japanese_folklore Japanese_legends Time_travel_in_fiction