Saturday, 4 February 2017

49 - Hokkei: Urashima Tarō Going Home on the Back of a Tai Fish


Ukiyo-e. Surimono. Hokkien. Urashima Taro.
Hokkei: Urashima Tarō Going Home on the Back of a Tai Fish

This is a surimono by Totoya Hokkei, showing Urashima Tarō Going Home on the Back of a Tai Fish - the Emperor of the Sea Seeing Him Off.

Urashima Tarō is a figure in a Japanese legend. He saves a turtle, which shows to be the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea, Ryūjin. The Emperor wants to thank him, so he is taken to the Palace of the Dragon God at the bottom of the sea, where he meets the Emperor and his daughter, now the princess Otohime. When he is permitted to return home to see his aged mother, 300 years have passed - and when he opens a box Otohime gave him but forbade him to open, he suddenly ages. The box contained "his old age".

There are several different versions of the tale.