Urashima Taro and Other Japanese Children's Favorite Stories. Florence Sakade

Sea Princess. “Taro, you were very kind to my good subject, the turtle,” she said to him. “I wanted to thank you, so I had him bring you here. Please be my friend and stay in the palace forever. We will be very happy, and you shall have everything you want.”

      So Taro stayed in the palace with the Sea Princess. He ate wonderful food, saw wonderful things and was very happy at first. But after a while—after only a few days, he thought—he began to be lonely for his home and his friends back on the shore. He wondered how his father and mother were.

      Finally, one day he said to the princess: “I’ve been very happy here, but I want to go back to the land and see my home and my friends. Please send me back.”

      “All right, Taro,” the princess said, “if you are determined to go, then I’ll send you back. But I’ll be sorry to see you go. We’ve been so happy together. In memory of your stay here I’ll give you this beautiful box. As long as you have this, you may come back to see me any time you wish. But, Taro, don’t open this, ever. If you open it, you’ll never be able to come back. Be sure! Do not open it!”

      So Taro took the box, thanked the princess for the wonderful time, climbed on the back of the turtle, and went back to his home.

      When he got to the beach, the village had changed. He could no longer find his own house. He asked some people on the beach, “Where is Urashima Taro’s house, and where are his parents?”

      “Why, young man,” they answered, “you’re asking about things that were here many, many years ago. Urashima Taro was drowned before most of us remember. What strange person are you that you do not know this?”

      Taro was very puzzled. How could this be? He was the same—or so he thought—and only the people and the place were different. Could it be that the secret of this strange thing was in the box that the Sea Princess had given him? He thought about this for some time, and then at last he decided to open the box, even though the Sea Princess had warned him not to do so.