Urashima Tarō: From Tango to the Dragon Palace

The oldest versions of Urashima Tarō are set on the Tango coast. In the 8th-century Fudoki for Tango Province, a fisherman called Urashimako catches a five-coloured turtle and keeps it in his boat. While he sleeps, the turtle becomes a beautiful woman, who says she comes from the household of immortals and offers to take him to their land. He only got the full name Urashima Tarō in the 15th century. The story belongs to the Tango Peninsula in northern Kyoto Prefecture, not to one named beach.

Location precision: The sources place the tale on the Tango coast without naming a single beach, so the peninsula is shown unpinned.

In the best-known telling, a turtle gives Tarō gills and carries him to the Palace of the Dragon God, where he stays three days with the princess Otohime. Where was it? Chamberlain noted a theory that the Dragon Palace might be a romanticized Okinawa, since Ryūgū and Ryūkyū (Okinawa) are near homophones. An 18th-century tale from Yonaha village in Haebaru likewise has a man visit the Dragon Palace.

Location precision: The Dragon Palace is legendary; the pin marks Haebaru, where an analogous Okinawan tale is set, not a proven site.

On the western coast of the Tango Peninsula, Urashima Shrine tells the homecoming. Its old document says Urashimako left his land in 478 and returned in 825 with a tamatebako, the treasure box. Ten days later he opened it, a cloud of white smoke rose, and he turned into an old man. Emperor Junna then ordered Ono no Takamura to build a shrine to house the box and Urashimako's spirit. The shrine stands in Honjōhama, in the town of Ine.

Visitor guidance: The shrine is in Honjōhama, Ine, Kyoto Prefecture.

Yokohama has its own ending. Local legend says Tarō, back from the Dragon Palace, was guided to his parents' grave in Shirahata, and Princess Otohime lit a light on a pine branch to show him. The old Urashima-dera, Kanpuku-ji, burned down in 1868, and its Kannon statue moved to Keiun-ji in 1872. Keiun-ji still keeps the so-called Urashima Kannon, which is why it is also called Urashima Temple.

Location precision: The legend names Shirahata, not the temple; the pin marks Keiun-ji, which keeps the Urashima Kannon today.

Visitor guidance: Keiun-ji is a working temple in Yokohama; please be quiet in the grounds.

Far from any sea, the Kiso Valley claims Urashima too. Folk tradition says the name Nezame no Toko, comes from Tarō feeling here that his old life had been a dream. Rinsen-ji in Agematsu stands on a cliff above the eroded granite rocks and, by its own origin story, tells how he opened his box and became a 300-year-old man. Its treasure hall holds a fishing pole said to be his. It is a designated scenic place in Nagano.

Location precision: This is a local tradition; a 17th-century writer was skeptical that Urashima ever came here.

Visitor guidance: A scenic spot in Agematsu, Nagano, with Rinsen-ji on the cliff above.