Tree List

Trees.

Arborscht

Akateko
Akateko赤手児
あかてこ

Translation: red child’s hand
Habitat: Japanese honey locust (Gleditsia japonica) trees
Diet: unknown

Appearance: The akateko appears—just as the name implies—as a red, disembodied hand belonging to a child. It is found hanging in Japanese honey locust trees.

Interactions: Akateko drops down from trees as people pass underneath them. Aside from giving its victims a nasty surprise and the general creepiness of a disembodied red child’s hand, it is not known for causing any great harm.

Some people have seen the figure of a furisode-wearing beautiful girl of 17 or 18 years standing underneath an akateko’s tree. Those who witness her are immediately struck with a powerful fever. It is not clear what relationship she has to the akateko, if she is part of the same apparition or another spirit entirely.

Origin: The origin of akateko is usually given as a certain tree in front of an elementary school in the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture. However, there are local versions of it in Fukushima and Kagawa Prefectures as well. In these prefectures, akateko sometimes work together with another yokai called aka ashi. They grab at the feet of pedestrians, causing them to stumble and fall. It has also been suggested that akateko and aka ashi are two forms of the same yokai.

Bake ichō no sei
化け銀杏の精
ばけいちょうのせい

Translation: monster ginkgo spirit
Alternate names: bake ichō no rei, ichō no bakemono
Habitat: ginkgo trees
Diet: none

Appearance: Bake ichō no sei are the spirits of ginkgo trees. They are very tall, with bright yellow bodies the color of ginkgo leaves in autumn. They wear tattered old black kimono and carry small gongs.

Behavior: Bake ichō no sei appear near very old ginkgo trees and strike their mallets. It’s not known whether there is some purpose to this other than making those who hear them feel strange or shocked.

Origin: Bake ichō no sei was first depicted in an 18th century yōkai scroll by Yosa Buson. Although he described as the ghost of an old ginkgo tree from Kamakura, he did not include a detailed description of it. Later, Mizuki Shigeru elaborated on this spirit and connected it to old superstitions about ginkgo trees.

While ginkgo trees are beloved for their beauty, resistance to fire, and wind breaking abilities, folk beliefs also hold them as inauspicious to have in a home garden for a number of reasons. They are high ranking and holy trees, so they belong in the gardens of temples, shrines, and public places; not private gardens. Planting a ginkgo is one’s own garden was sacrilegious. In addition, they grow tall very quickly and can cause a house to become dark, which can interrupt or alter the flow of in’yō (yin and yang) energy. If the roots grow underneath the house, they could spread sickness and misfortune to a family for many generations. Residents in houses with ginkgo trees would become sick and die much sooner than those without. All manner of strange things could happen in and around houses which had ginkgo trees in their gardens.

Demon Tree

Chibusa enoki
乳房榎
ちぶさえのき

Translation: breast hackberry

Appearance: Chibusa enoki was a hackberry (Celtis sinensis) tree which grew in Itabashi, Tōkyō during the mid 18th century. The tree got its name from the peculiar bulbs on it which were not only shaped like breasts, but also produced nourishing milk. The legend of the tree was turned into a famous rakugyo performance in the Meiji Period. Similar tales of miraculous trees with breastmilk-producing bulbs can be found even today.

Legends: Long ago a samurai-turned-painter named Hishikawa Shigenobu lived in Edo with his wife Okise and their baby boy Mayotarō. His apprentice was a skillful young man named Isogai Namie. Unbeknownst to Shigenobu, Namie lusted after Okise.

One day, Shigenobu was called away to paint a temple ceiling. He took his servant Shōsuke with him. In their absence, Namie approached Okise and threatened to murder the boy Mayotarō if she did not sleep with him. With nobody to protect her, she agreed. Gradually, she came to return Namie’s affection. Their affair continued for some time, but Namie knew it would end when Shigenobu came home. So he devised a plan to ensure that his master would never return.

Namie visited Shigenobu under the pretense of seeing his progress. Shigenobu was nearly finished, with only the arm of the female dragon left to paint. That evening, Namie coerced Shōsuke into helping him assassinate Shigenobu. Shōsuke returned to the temple and invited Shigenobu out to watch the fireflies with him. While enjoying the nighttime spectacle, Shōsuke got Shigenobu very drunk. Then, on the way back to the temple, Namie attacked and slew the drunk old samurai.

Shōsuke rushed to the temple to report that brigands had attacked his master. However, when he arrived, he saw that Shigenobu was there! The painter had just finished the female dragon’s arm, and was signing his name to the painting. When Shigenobu turned to look at him, Shōsuke was so shocked that he fainted. When he came to, Shigenobu was gone… Had it been a ghost?

Not long after that, Namie and the widow Okise were married. Shōsuke remained in Namie’s service. Namie and Okise had a baby. However, Namie did not like raising Shigenobu’s son in addition to his own. He ordered Shōsuke to murder Mayotarō.

Shōsuke took the boy to a waterfall and flung him off into the abyss. Peering down into the waterfall’s basin, he was shocked to the core. The ghost of his murdered master Shigenobu was there! It had caught the baby boy, and was cradling him safely. Shigenobu’s ghost approached Shōsuke and commanded him to take Mayotarō to the nearby temple of Shōgetsuin. Shōsuke was so shocked that he reformed his ways and did as he was commanded. Mayotarō was brought to Shōgetsuin, where Shōsuke raised him. There was a miraculous hackberry tree with bulbs on it shaped like breasts on the temple grounds. The tree produced a milk that was sweet and nourishing, and allowed Mayotarō to grow up strong and healthy.

Okise became haunted by visions of Shigenobu’s ghost. She developed painful tumors in her breasts, and was unable to produce milk for her and Namie’s newborn. The baby became sickly and died. Not long after that, Okise herself went mad and died in agony.

Five years later, the story of the boy raised on the hackberry’s milk spread far and wide. When it reached Namie’s ears, he realized what had happened to Shōsuke and Mayotarō. Namie went to Shōgetsuin with the intent of murdering them both. Upon reaching the temple, he surprised Shōsuke and Mayotarō, who were unable to defend themselves. At that very moment, Shigenobu’s ghost appeared and directed Mayotarō’s swordhand. Namie was struck dead. Shigenobu’s ghost, having achieved his vengeance, vanished forever.

Furutsubaki no rei
Furutsubaki no Rei古椿の霊
ふるつばきのれい

Translation: old tsubaki spirit
Habitat: tsubaki trees
Diet: water, soil, and sunlight

Appearance: In Japanese folklore, almost anything, upon reaching an old age, can develop a spirit and become a yokai. When a tsubaki tree (Camellia japonica, or the rose of winter) reaches an old age, it’s spirit gains the ability to separate itself from its host tree, along with other strange and mysterious powers, which it uses to bewitch and trick humans.

Origin: The tsubaki is an evergreen tree which has the strange behavior of not losing its flowers gradually, petal by petal, but dropping them all at once to the ground. As a result, it long been associated with death and strangeness in Japan (and is also taboo to bring as gifts to hospitals or sick people).

Legends: Long ago in Yamagata prefecture, two merchants were walking along a mountain road when they passed a tsubaki tree. Suddenly a beautiful young woman appeared from out of nowhere on the road beside one of the merchants. She breathed on him, and instantly he transformed into a bee. She then disappeared into the tsubaki tree, and the bee followed her and landed on a flower. The fragrance of the tree had turned into poison, however, and as soon as the bee smelled it, it dropped to the ground. The flower soon fell off of the tree too. The other merchant picked up both the bee and the flower and rushed to a nearby temple to save his friend. The priest recited prayers and read the sutras over the bee, but it sadly did not return to life or to its former human form. Afterwards, the surviving merchant buried the bee and the flower together.

In Akita prefecture, long ago, a man heard a sad and lonely voice coming from the tree one night. A few days later, a disaster befell the temple. This happened again and again, and soon the priests at the temple realized that the tsubaki would cry a warning every time something bad was going to happen. The tree was dubbed Yonaki Tsubaki, or “night-crying tsubaki,” and still stands today in the temple Kanman-ji, where it has stood for over 700 years.

In Ōgaki, Gifu, there is an ancient burial mound. One year, historians excavated the burial mound and discovered some ancient artifacts, including a mirror and some bones; however, shortly after the man who discovered the artifacts died. The locals blamed it on a curse, and returned the artifacts to the mound, planting a tsubaki on top of it. When the tsubaki grew old, it transformed into a yokai tree. Since then, the glowing figure of a young, beautiful woman has been seen by the roadside near the burial mound at night.

Jubokko
樹木子
じゅぼっこ

Translation: tree child, shrub child
Habitat: battlefields, places where mass deaths occurred
Diet: blood

Appearance: On the fields of war and sites of vicious massacres, where the blood of thousands of warriors has saturated the soil, a strange kind of tree can be found. From afar, jubokko appear to be ordinary trees, indistinguishable from the various species that dot the landscape. It takes an observant eye to notice the slightly more fearsome features of its branches, or the piles of human bones buried in the undergrowth beneath the tree. In fact, they were once normal trees; but the vast amounts of human blood absorbed through their roots transformed them into yōkai. Thereafter, the trees thirst only for human blood.

Behavior: Jubokko wait for unsuspecting humans to pass underneath their branches. When somebody gets close enough, they attack, snatching their prey with long, jagged, finger-like branches, and hoisting it into their boughs. These branches pierce the skin of their victims, sucking out all of the blood with special tube-like twigs. After the body is drained, the flesh and organs are consumed by birds, insects, and other animals. Only the dry bones fall back to earth. By the time most people are close enough to notice the heaps of bleached bones at the base of the trees, it is too late to escape.

Momiji
Momiji紅葉
もみじ

Translation: literally “maple leaves;” used as a name

Origin: The tale of Princess Sarashina/Momiji is famous in Japanese theater. The noh play Momijigari (“Hunting Momiji” or “Fall-Leaf Hunting”) first appeared hundreds of years ago, during the Muromachi period. During the Meiji period it was remade as a kabuki play. Momijigari was made into a film in 1899, becoming the first narrative film in Japan. It was designated an Important Culture Property in 2009.

Legends: Long ago a powerful witch named Momiji lived in the mountains of Nagano prefecture. Her story takes place during the season of fall-leaf-viewing, when groups of people would gather in the mountains for festivals and parties under the falling red, orange, and gold leaves.

During this time, a samurai named Taira no Koremochi was charged by a local Hachiman shrine with hunting oni. His hunt had taken him to Togakushi mountain, where a particularly nasty kijo was said to live.

Koremochi and his retainers climbed the beautiful mountain, and they came upon a small group of aristocrats having a leaf-viewing party. Koremochi sent one of his retainer ahead to investigate. The retainer approached to inquire about the party, and was told that a noble princess was hosting it; however the ladies in waiting would not tell him the princess’ name. Just as Koremochi and his retainers decided to continue on their mission, one of the ladies-in-waiting approached and told them that her mistress had heard of Koremochi before, and she wanted to invite them to her party. Despite his mission Koremochi could not rudely turn down a princess, so he and his companions agreed.

At the party, the warriors were introduced to Princess Sarashina, an extremely beautiful young woman. They all sat and enjoyed watching the leaves, drinking sake, and dancing. Koremochi asked the princess if she would dance for him, and she did. Soon the men became drunk and sleepy, and dozed off under the beautiful trees.

As he slept, Koremochi dreamed of Hachiman and his mission. The god told him that Princess Sarashina was actually the kijo Momiji in disguise, and that he must kill her with the holy katana, Kogarasumaru (“Little Crow”). When Koremochi woke up, the sword he dreamed of was in his hand — a gift from Hachiman — and he knew that what he dreamed had been real. He chased after the women, and all of a sudden a huge firestorm broke out. Flame and wind lit up the mountain. Suddenly a ten foot tall kijo with horns made of burning trees appeared, and an intense battle between the samurai and the demoness took place. In the end, thanks to his magical sword, Koremochi was successful, and slew the Witch of Togakushi Mountain.

Ninmenju
Ninmenju人面樹
にんめんじゅ

Translation: human face tree
Alternate names: jinmenju
Habitat: mountain valleys

Appearance: The ninmenju is a strange tree which bears flowers looking like human heads. These heads cannot speak, but they do smile and can even laugh. In the autumn, they bear face-shaped fruit which tastes sweet and sour.

Interactions: If a person laughs at the tree, the head-shaped flowers will laugh back at that person. If they laugh too strongly, the heads will wilt and fall off the trees.

Origin: The ninmenju is an example of folklore that has traveled over great time and distance to become what it is.

Ninmenju first appears in Japan in the Edo period encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue, which documents animals, plants, and yōkai from both inside and outside of Japan. The description is paraphrased from the Sancai tuhui, a Chinese encyclopedia published in 1609. Sancai tuhui describes ninmenju as originating in the foreign land of Daishi-koku (大食国). Daishi was the Japanese pronunciation of the Ming Chinese name for the Islamic world, which came from the Persian word tāzī. Tāzī was the Persian word for Muslims, derived from the Tayy, an Arabic tribe which flourished under the Abbasid Caliphate.

The waq waq tree of Islamic folklore is very similar to the ninmenju. This tree was described as bearing fruit shaped like humans and animals. The fruit could speak, but would die a few days after being picked. These trees grew on the mythical island of Waq Waq in the land of Zanj, an area in Africa near present-day Zanzibar. Legend has it that Alexander the Great had his death foretold by one of these trees. The waq waq tree may be the same tree from Daishi-koku that the Sancai Tuhui refers to. Through trade between Ming China along the Silk Road, it is possible that this Arabic myth is the model for what eventually became the ninmenju.

Sakabashira
Sakabashira逆柱
さかばしら

Translation: upside-down pillar
Habitat: houses
Diet: resentment at being upside-down

Appearance: Sakabashira are the angry spirits of tree leaves which manifest inside houses where one of the pillars has been placed upside-down — that is to say, in the opposite direction of the way the tree was pointing when it was living. These spirits manifest their grudge late at night, and bring misfortune upon those living in the house.

Behavior: Sakabashira are most well-known for making noises. They creak and moan, imitate the sounds of wooden beams cracking, and sometimes even speak in sentences like, “My neck hurts!” They can cause houses to shake, and the leaf-spirits residing in the tree can manifest as yanari, acting like poltergeists and breaking things around the house. Sakabashira can be so loud that families often move out of a house that is haunted by one, for these yokai cause not only strange noises, but also terrible luck. People who stay in a house haunted by a sakabashira often lose their family fortunes, or even lose all of their possessions to great conflagrations which consume and destroy the cursed house.

Origin: It has long been a folk belief that a pillar erected in the upside-down position will bring misfortune to a family, and a sakabashira is usually the result of a careless mistake on the part of the construction crew. In order to prevent this yokai from appearing, folk superstition tells us that a pillar must be erected in the same orientation as the tree had when it was alive. However, sometimes support pillars are actually installed this way on purpose. The reason for this is another folk belief: “The moment a house is completed, it starts to fall apart.” As a kind of ward against bad luck, Japanese buildings were sometimes only almost completed, with the final step being left out, or purposefully made into a mistake. The famous Tosho-gu shrine at Nikko is such an example, having been built with just one pillar purposefully pointing in the opposite direction. This same superstition was followed when building the imperial palace — placing the final pillar in an upside-down position. During the Edo period, house builders commonly “forgot” to place the last three roof tiles for the same reason.

Maneater Tree

*Carnivorous Tree.

Jubokko

According to folklore, it appears in former battlefields where many people have died, and its appearance does not differ that much from ordinary trees. Since it becomes a yōkai tree by sucking up large quantities of blood from the dead, it lives on human blood. When a human being happens to pass by, it supposedly captures the victim and, changing its branches into the shape of a tube, sucks the blood out of the victim. A Jubokko that sucks life out of human beings in such a way is said to always maintain a fresh appearance. When a Jubokko is cut, blood trickles out. It is said that a Jubokko branch could heal and decontaminate an injured person.

Money Tree

A Type Of Tree Which Produces All Business Plans, Currency, And Blueprints On Its Foliage. It Is Offspring Of The Tree Of Knowledge.