Urashima Taro and the Dragon Palace
Classical Stories · No. 25 — Three days beneath the sea; three hundred years at home.
- Classical Stories
- 54 min
- Ages 8–13
- 7 chapters
About this audiobook
Urashima Taro, a kind young fisherman, rescues a small turtle from children tormenting it on the beach. Days later an enormous turtle surfaces beside his boat with thanks and an invitation, and carries him down through the blue to Ryūgū-jō, the Dragon Palace, where the princess Otohime herself receives him. The palace is all wonder — coral halls, fish courtiers, and four windows that look out on spring, summer, autumn and winter at once. He stays, by his own count, three days. But homesickness wins, and Otohime gives him a parting gift: a small lacquered box, with one instruction. Whatever happens, do not open it.
Why it's worth a listen
A young fisherman saves a small turtle from cruel children and is carried, as thanks, to the palace at the bottom of the sea — where the four seasons show through four windows at once and nobody grows old. Japan's strangest, saddest folk tale is a time-travel story a thousand years older than science fiction, with an ending no listener ever forgets.
A question to keep
If wonderful things make time disappear, how do you know when to go home?
Chapters
- The Tide and the Turtle
- The Deep Road
- The Palace of the Four Seasons
- The Pearl-String of Days
- The Gift and the Shore
- The Shore of Whispers
- A Question to Keep