Case file · Folklore / legend
Urashima of Tango
The Tango Fudoki (about 715) and the Nihon Shoki record a fisherman of Tango who visited an undersea or island realm and returned to find centuries had passed.
715 CE · 35.68, 135.29 · status: legend
The account
In the oldest versions he marries a turtle-woman from the land of Tokoyo; the later tale of Urashima Tarō adds the dragon palace and the box he must not open. Urashima Shrine at Ine claims the box.
The sceptical view
A widespread 'time in fairyland' tale type; modern writers who read it as relativistic space travel are reinterpreting a myth.