The palace of the dragon king

This story is very unusual, as a dragon tale inside a dragon book without any actual dragons is not common. However, this story shows the power, authority and the magic dragons wield in Japanese tales, therefore it can proudly belong to any dragon book collection.

Once, a young fisherman went out to sea in his boat but he failed to catch anything for four days. Suddenly, he felt something entangled in his net. It was a beautiful sea turtle. The fishermen happily pulled the turtle inside his boat and fell asleep.

When he woke up, the fisherman was very surprised to see a beautiful damsel sitting in his boat instead of the turtle. Very frightened, the fisherman asked the girl who was she and how did she come to his boat, alone in the sea.

I rode a cloud to reach your boat, the girl answered. You saw me as a turtle. I've came because I saw you in your boat and I fell in love with you.

At first, the fisherman was very frightened because he understood the girl wasn't human but slowly, as he looked at the beautiful girl, he fell in love with her.

The girl directed the fisherman and they reached a marvelous palace, the palace of the dragon king, her father, where they got married and lived happily for three years in stupendous splendor.

However, the fisherman started missing his family and friends and asked his wife to show him the way back to his home. The girl explained how he could travel home and gave him a box inlaid with pearls and precious stones. She told him never to open the box, just hold it and think of her and she would come to take him back to the palace.

The fisherman reached his old home but he didn't recognize anyone living there. When he asked after his family he was told they lived over three hundred years ago, when one of the men went fishing and never returned.

Confused, the fisherman opened the box and in an instant he aged three hundred years. He dragged himself to the sea shore and sung his love to his wife. The wind sang him her reply, that her love was eternal, but they would never meet again.

This story shows us that dragons' warnings are not to be taken lightly. In addition, no dragon book can be complete without describing the dragon king palace under the sea. It has many floors and its walls are made from red and white corals. Snow fills some of its halls while butterflies flit around in others. Cherry trees blossom and nightingales sing in others. There is winter in one hall and summer in the other. One year in the dragon king's palace equals one hundred years in the mortal world. 

In the Japanese dragon book, a dragon is the ruler of the seas.

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