What does it mean?
Why did Urashima stay away so long?
Why did only smoke come out of the beautiful box?

The children had been listening to the ancient tale of the Japanese fisherman who went away on a turtle's back and lived for a long, long time in a beautiful palace under the sea. Now the breeze from far over the ocean blew their questioning voices into the sky, and there were no real answers. But each child was wondering, and thinking his own thoughts.

In a book of touching beauty Taro Yashima has told a legend full of wonder for every child who reads it. It has the ageless tranquility of its setting—"the quietness of ancient times is there, just as it always was."

From the dust jacket