Urashima Tarō: The House That Was Gone

The missing house

Urashima came home after three days. His house was gone.

Before the journey

It had begun with a turtle. Children were tormenting it on the beach. He paid them to leave it alone.

Below the waves

The turtle returned and carried him beneath the sea, to a palace bright with coral.

The life he saved

The princess welcomed him. She was the creature he had saved. Here, she said, they could remain young together.

Someone was waiting

After three days, he imagined his parents leaving a lamp burning for him. He could not let them wait another night.

A parting condition

The princess begged him to stay. When he insisted, she gave him a box. “Keep it closed.”

The wrong village

Now the beach was familiar, but the houses were wrong. He asked a stranger where his parents lived.

A name in history

“Urashima?” The man knew the name. A fisherman had vanished here three hundred years ago.

Too late for home

Three hundred years. Everyone he had hurried home to reassure was dead.

The only thing left

The princess had warned him. But perhaps the box could lead him back to her. He loosened the cord.

The years arrive

He lifted the lid. White vapour rose. When it cleared, his hands were old.

The tide returns

He fell still beside the box. The tide came in as it had on the morning he left.