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Mizue no Uranoshimako

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水江 (みずえ)   () 浦嶋子 (うらのしまこ)
Mizue no Uranoshimako
Mizue no Urashimako, Mizue no Urashimanoko, Urashima Tarou (浦島 太郎 () )

More Alternative Spellings

No image

Species

Human

Age

Over 300, deceased

Occupation

Fisherman

Appearances
Print Works

Mizue no Uranoshimako (水江 浦嶋子) appears in Chapter 3 of Cage in Lunatic Runagate in flashback, as told by Watatsuki no Toyohime and Watatsuki no Yorihime.

Character Basis

Origin

Mizue no Uranoshimako is otherwise known as Urashima Tarou (浦島 太郎), a fisherman who was spirited away to Ryuuguu-jou (竜宮城/龍宮城), the undersea palace of Ryuujin (龍神 lit. dragon god). There, he met the Ryuujin and his daughter, Otohime, resided three days, and longing for his village, returned and found that three hundred years had passed. Despairing, he opened a box that Otohime had given him, upon which his age returned, and died.

Today, Urashima-jinja in Ine, Kyoto on Tango Peninsula stands dedicated to him, and time dilation is sometimes referred to as the Urashima effect.

Name

The name Urashima Taro first appears in the 15th century, in the book Otogizoshi, but the story of Uranoshimako is much older, dating back to the 8th century. These older works, the Nihon Shoki, Man'yoshu, and Tango no Kuni Fudoki (丹後国風土記), all refer to Tarou as Uranoshimako. This is because of a change in Japanese naming customs; in the previous eras, -ko (child) was used for both male and female names, while in later times it was mostly a female name element, replaced with -tarou (great youth) in boys' names.

Story

Cage in Lunatic Runagate

After Eirin Yagokoro warns them of the incoming youkai invasion from Earth told in Silent Sinner in Blue, Watatsuki no Toyohime and Watatsuki no Yorihime watch over the Sea of Tranquility for any sign of them. Meanwhile, they begin to reminisce about Uranoshimako, a fisherman from 1500 years ago, who saw a turtle with a shell of five colors. He chased the turtle and dove into sea to catch it, but found his boat gone. Clinging on to the turtle, he soon found himself in the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. Thinking the Lunar Capital was the legendary land of Hourai, he came onto land and was found by a curious Toyohime, who let him stay.

Instead of Hourai, or the Lunar Capital, she told him it was the Dragon King's Palace. He remained for three years in the "Dragon King's Palace", but began yearning for home. Toyohime feared he would tell the Earthlings about the Capital and informed Eirin about him, who suggested he be killed. Because the sisters were too kind for that, it was instead decided to place him in cryogenic stasis and send him back at a time when nobody would remember who he was, three hundred years into the future.

Upon returning to his village, no one remembered who Uranoshimako was, and he fell into despair. At that time, Eirin, now living on Earth with Kaguya, sent Uranoshimako a tamakushigi. Once he opened it, his body aged instantly and he became old and frail. However, with proof of his voyage, the villagers treated him with reverence. His story reached Emperor Junna, who thought it proof of Hourai and wanted to see him, but by then Uranoshimako had died and Junna built a temple in his honor.

In the end, Uranoshimako strengthened people's faith in the land of Hourai, in the Lunar Capital, and made all of the era's authority figures aware of the majesty of its people, and was enshrined as a God. Meanwhile, the Watatsukis learned a lesson about not taking in any lost travelers after that, and claim themselves to not be as foolish or nice as they were when they took Uranoshimako in.

Relationships

Watatsuki no Toyohime (Caretaker)
Watatsuki no Yorihime (Caretaker)

Official Sources

Official sources