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Urashima
The story tells how a fisherman named Urashima caught a tortoise one day (tortoises were thought to live thousands of years), but let the tortoise go. For his kindness, the tortoise
took Urashima to the Palace of the Dragon King. On his arrival he was warmly greeted and the tortoise turned out to be none other than the Princess Otohime who had disguised
herself to test his kindness and as a reward offered her hand in marriage and the chance to stay in her kingdom where he would never age. One day Urashima longed to see his parents
and promised to only be gone a day. Tearfully, Otohime presented Urashima with the Tamate-Bako (Box of the Jewel Hand) and made him swore not to open it. He left, but learned
a day in the Palace under the sea equaled 100 years in the mortal land. Since all he knew were dead, he longed to return to Otohime but not knowing how, he opened the box thinking he
might find an answer. His promise to Otohime broken, he aged on opening the box and fell dead on the shore.
The story of Urashima is alluded to at the beginning of ep. 18 of Cowboy Bebop, and throughout the Tamate-Bako is compared to the Beta tape sent to Faye. Faye is like Urashima in
that her cryogenic sleep has caused her to return in the future after everyone from her past have lived out their life or gone.
This legend gets retold with a twist in the second Urusei Yatsura film: Beautiful Dreamer. Lum is the princess invited to the Dragon Palace, a dream world created by Mujaki, the Dream
Demon and turtle for the purposes of the tale. The question is raised if what if not just Taro but the whole village had rescued the turtle and gone to the Dragon Palace, and thus
whole town in essence is indeed riding a turtle when the gang flys up over the city and realizes that's just what they're doing. At the beginning, before Onsen disappears, on
leaving Tomobiki High (another Dragon Palace reference) he comes back looking exhausted and finds his apartment caked in dust and mushrooms, aged for years in what
he thought was a short absence.
From Chris: In Love Hina there is a reference.
For one thing the names Urashima and Otohime. secondly the turtles.
In the anime there is a dream if I recall correctly where Urashima
Keitaro dreams he is a turtle who has been turned over on his back and
being picked on by his two friends. There's also something about a
dragon palace. In one version of the Urishima legend the fisherman
saves the turtle from children torrmenting it. Also there is the
journey to the dragon palace.
From Chris also: In Vol. 35 File 11-Vol. 36 File 01-04 of Detective Conan there is a
case where the clues to solving it are related to the Urashima
Legend.
From Kit: The Urashima myth gains a twist during the Dark Tournament story arc in Yu Yu Hakusho. One of the competitors, Ura Urashima, was winning his battles by cracking open the Idunn Box, releasing a smoke that would turn his opponent into a baby. It backfired on him when he unleashed it on Kurama, causing him to revert to his previous incarnation, the powerful fox demon Yoko Kurama.
From Patrick Drazen: The first episode of the
shounen-ai anime series "Gravitation" has a throwaway
gag that refers to Urashima; when someone complains
that he was waiting too long to meet someone in a
coffee shop, he suddenly ages fifty years. [My note: I'll add that there's a some-what similar random gag in the first
part of the Pretty Cure series while Nagisa and Hanoka are at the art museum and the only way for Nagisa to put the concept of a long period of time
into sense is to think of an image of the hero riding the turtle out to sea.]