Instead, it was a story written for children at the turn of the century by a Japanese writer named Hirosuke Hamada. Yet, from everything I have witnessed, I think Hamada should be congratulated for creating a tale that has slipped so easily into the pool of regenerative culture. Very few modern stories retain the relationship to traditional tales that allows them to be remembered in the larger context and retold from the seed they contain.

Christi Ann Merrill is a free-lance writer and teacher residing in New York.