Either way, it made the island’s connection to the Palace of the Dragon King all the more interesting.īehind the Kame House is a private beach for travelers staying at the property, but Ikuna got special permission from the owners to take a swim, so she grabbed her goggles and snorkel. Unfortunately, Maeda passed away several years ago, and Ikuna couldn’t find any more information about the origins of “The Legend of the Amami Urashima Villa”. It was built about 30 years ago by someone named Michiyo Maeda, whose name is listed on the bottom of the stone monument as the storyteller behind the legend. When she looked it up, she learned that the brightly painted building was actually a vacation rental home officially known as the Amami Kame House. Ikuna couldn’t tell if there was actually such a legend, or if it was just a joke. Welcome to the Amami Palace of the Dragon King, a place of peace and luck.” Depending on your dreams and passions, the doors to the Dragon King’s Palace may open to you. Since their placement, this place has been transformed into the Palace of the Dragon King. “Urashima Taro and the turtle rest atop the roof of a villa overlooking the beautiful ocean and white sand beach. This monument was engraved with “The Legend of the Amami Urashima Villa”: A bright rainbow stretched between clouds in the sky, and just above the rainbow was…Ī statue of Urashima Taro riding a turtle! This was sufficiently shocking for Ikuna, but even more of a surprise was the stone monument beside the building. The building was painted in pretty colors, with a blue sea and sky, hibiscus flowers, and sea creatures. ![]() ![]() If you’re visiting Amami Oshima, you won’t be able to miss it, as it’s along the road that passes by most of the island’s points of interest. It was a seaside building about a 10-minute drive into town from Amami Airport. Ikuna, whose last name also contains “kame”, began to feel closer to turtles than ever before.īut one particular place really caught her eye while she was driving around the island: a building with something that looked like a turtle on top of it. Turtle motifs were everywhere, and the word kame, which means “turtle” in Japanese, was used in many of the shops’ names. Turtles are an important part of Amami Oshima’s culture, Ikuna learned. “Well,” Ikuna thought, gazing out at the crystal blue waters of the island’s beaches, “If the Palace of the Dragon King had to be anywhere, it’d be an island like this.” ![]() The people of the island, which is so connected to the ocean and ocean life that there is an aquarium in the airport, believes that the Palace of the Dragon King has been bringing good luck since ancient times, according to an inscription on a statue of a “Wish-Granting Turtle” she found at the island’s northernmost point. And though Ikuna would normally take such claims with a grain of salt, when she visited the island, she could feel a certain magic that made it believable as the setting for Urashima Taro’s tale. ![]() Amami Oshima is an island in the Amami archipelago, which is southwest of Japan between Okinawa and Kyushu. As such, it’s rather hard to believe one claim over another.īut our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa thinks one place’s claims might actually be true. The end of the story is even believed by some to have taken place in Nagano. For example, a number of coastlines throughout Japan claim to be the setting for the tale of Urashima Taro, a story about a fisherman who, after saving a turtle, is invited to visit the Palace of the Dragon King at the bottom of the sea. There’s a mysticism to this place that really makes it feel like a turtle could guide you to the Dragon King’s Palace.Ī lot of places in Japan like to associate themselves with folktales, which gives them a tourist edge over other places.
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