Mythology

Appelman

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Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: Appelmannetje, Appleman
Category: Plant

The Myth

In the orchards of Limburg, people once warned children and adults alike not to eat too many apples. If someone grew greedy and devoured more than their share, they were told, “The Appelman will get you,” or, “The Appleman will come to collect what is owed.”

The Appelman was believed to be the spirit of the apple tree itself, a quiet presence watching over the orchard. He was not often seen, but people felt that he noticed when someone showed too much hunger or greed. Those who ignored the warning risked misfortune, illness, or some other small punishment sent by the spirit of the tree.

A similar belief was known in England, where people said the final apple on a tree should never be picked. That fruit was left behind as the share belonging to the Appleman. To take it would be to rob the spirit who guarded the tree, and doing so might bring bad luck upon the household.

Thus the Appelman was remembered as a guardian of balance in the orchard — a spirit who reminded people that the fruits of the earth should be taken with moderation, and that greed might awaken the watchful soul of the tree.

Gallery

Sources

Abe de Verteller. (n.d.). Van aardmannetje tot zwarte juffer: Een lijst van Nederlandse en Vlaamse elfen en geesten. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://abedeverteller.nl/van-aardmannetje-tot-zwarte-juffer-een-lijst-van-nederlandse-en-vlaamse-elfen-en-geesten/

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Mamejuu

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Tradition / Region: Japanese modern folklore / yōkai tradition
Alternate Names: Bean Beast
Category: Plant

The Myth

There is said to be a strange being called the Mamejuu, a small creature soft like a bean and lacking eyes, yet filled with a quiet and watchful presence.

Unlike most spirits, the Mamejuu is not found in forests or rivers, but within the human heart itself. It sleeps there unnoticed, hidden deep inside a person. Only through discipline, study, and careful training can it be drawn out into the world.

When it emerges, the creature grows and becomes a loyal servant to the one who awakened it. People compare it to a shikigami of the onmyōji or to the spirit servants said to have followed mountain ascetics. Once fully formed, the Mamejuu can act on behalf of its master and may even influence others, carrying out quiet tasks that ordinary hands cannot perform.

Some say the creature is ancient and wise, able to whisper knowledge of hidden matters — the secrets of long life, the ways to gain wealth, and the paths by which fortune draws near. Yet its appearance is humble, and it remains close to the one who called it forth, like a spirit born from the soul itself.

Thus the Mamejuu is remembered as a being not found in the outer world, but grown within — a small, unseen creature waiting in the heart until someone learns how to bring it to life.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Mamejuu. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1076296172.html

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Mozousu-sama

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Mozosu-sama
Category: Plant, Ghost

The Myth

Long ago in Kitsunezuka of Kami Ongata, there lived a farmer named Yamamoto. He was unmarried, gentle in manner, and admired by many of the village girls. Yet his heart belonged to one woman alone, a beautiful lover with whom he had pledged his life.

Near the Yamamoto home stood a temple where a monk called Mozousu lived. He was known throughout the village as a troublesome man — coarse, selfish, and fond of chasing women. He meddled in the lives of widows and flirted shamelessly with visitors to the temple, earning a poor reputation among the people.

Before long, Mozousu set his sights on Yamamoto’s beloved. When Yamamoto was away, the monk began secretly visiting her, pressing her with unwanted attention and making threatening demands. The woman endured this harassment in silence until Yamamoto finally learned the truth.

Furious but troubled, Yamamoto hesitated. The monk was tied to the temple of his own family, and confronting him openly would not be simple. After much brooding, he resolved on a darker course. One night, as Mozousu made his way toward the woman’s house, Yamamoto lay in wait and killed him.

From that night onward, peace left the house. Each evening, the ghost of Mozousu came to Yamamoto’s bedside, whispering bitterly and tormenting him without rest.

At last Yamamoto prepared to face the spirit. He lay down with a sword at his pillow and waited. When the ghost appeared again and began its complaints, Yamamoto struck in a single motion, cutting it down.

The next morning, he went out to check his fields. There he found one of his onions split cleanly in two, as though struck by a blade. From the cut surface seeped a reddish fluid like blood. Only then did he understand that what he had struck in the night had not been a ghost in human form, but something tied to the earth itself.

Afterward, misfortune followed the Yamamoto family. Ill luck and trouble came one after another, and the household believed the dead monk’s resentment had not faded. To calm his spirit, they built a small shrine and enshrined him as Mozousu-sama, praying for his peace.

Even so, the family kept one rule for generations afterward: no onions were to be grown in their fields, lest the spirit remember and return once more.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Mozōsu. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1071221874.html

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Sansho-birashi

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Tradition / Region: Japanese folklore (Shima, Mie Prefecture)
Alternate Names: Sansho Kurage
Category: Plant

The Myth

Among the women divers of Shima, who for generations descended into the sea to gather abalone and seaweed, there were stories of a feared presence beneath the water known as the Sansho-birashi.

When the divers worked along the reefs, they sometimes felt a sudden sting, sharp as a needle. At first it was only a small pain, but soon it spread through the body, tightening the chest and making it hard to breathe. Some said the shock could even cloud the mind, leaving the diver confused or helpless in the water.

In earlier times, such attacks were believed to be the work of a demon that lurked among the reefs. The creature was said to be small and difficult to see, nearly transparent, hiding where the seaweed cast shadows. It struck silently and vanished just as quickly.

Because of this, divers took precautions. They crushed the leaves of the sanshō plant and smeared the sharp-scented juice across their skin before entering the sea. Others tucked sprigs of sanshō into their hair as charms, believing the plant’s power would repel the unseen attacker.

Another creature feared in the same waters was called the Sansho Kurage, a jellyfish-like being said to drift beneath seaweed beds. Its sting was said to bring burning pain and fever, and it too became part of the stories told among the divers before they slipped beneath the waves.

Even as time passed and people learned ways to treat the stings, the name Sansho-birashi remained, a reminder that the sea was never empty, and that unseen things could still wait among the rocks for those who entered their realm.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Sanshō-birashi. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1056156792.html

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Namakubitake

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Flesh Head Mushroom
Category: Plant, Mushroom

The Myth

At the Teranishi Shimodai residence there once stood a mound with a troubling story behind it. The tale began generations earlier, in the time of the monk Wakasa Nyūdō Sōkan.

One night, a strange and foul odor suddenly filled the monk’s sleeping chamber. He searched carefully through the room but could find nothing that might explain it. At last he looked upward and saw, resting against the ceiling, something impossible — the severed head of a young boy.

The head appeared to belong to a refined youth of fourteen or fifteen years. Its face looked fresh and lifelike, wearing a faint smile that made the sight even more unsettling. No one could explain where it had come from, and nothing else in the house seemed disturbed.

Unsure what else to do, the household buried the head in a corner of the estate grounds. Over the spot they raised a small mound and planted a tree to mark it.

Years passed.

Then, one autumn morning during the Hōreki era, as white dew lay thick on the ground, something unusual appeared on the mound. A mushroom had pushed its way up through the earth.

Its shape was elegant, somewhat like a reishi mushroom. Yet its stalk forked in an odd way, and when it was split open, people saw that the surface bore the likeness of a boy’s face. Eyes, ears, nose, and mouth all seemed formed in the flesh of the fungus, as if the earth had remembered what lay buried beneath it.

No one knew what the mushroom truly was or how it came to grow there. The strange fungus remained a mystery, and the mound where it appeared was remembered thereafter as a place where something buried had returned in another form.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Namakubitake. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1013072021.html

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Basho no Sei

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Tradition / Region: Chinese Mythology, Vietnamese Mythology
Alternate Names: Basho Essence, Banana Spirit, Plantain Ghost
Category: Plant

The Myth

In old stories it is said that even plants may awaken into spirits if they endure long enough in the world. Among the most well known of these is the Basho no Sei, the spirit of the bashō, or plantain tree.

When a banana plant grows old and stands for many years, people believed it could gather strange energy from wind, rain, and moonlight. Over time, this energy would give rise to a spirit within the trunk and leaves. At last, the tree might shed its stillness and take on a ghostly life of its own.

Such spirits were said to appear most often in the form of a woman. In Chinese tales, the banana essence sometimes took human shape to approach travelers or householders at night. Some versions say it deceived people with beauty and soft speech, only to bring harm once it had drawn close.

One story tells of a young monk studying late into the night in a quiet temple in Shinshu. As he read, a beautiful woman entered and spoke gently to him, trying to charm him with her presence. The monk sensed something unnatural and grew angry. Grasping a short blade, he struck at her, and she fled into the darkness, leaving a trail of blood.

At dawn, the monk followed the drops of blood into the courtyard. There he found that the temple’s plantain tree had been cut deeply into its trunk, and its sap ran down like the blood he had seen. From this he understood that the visitor of the night had been the spirit of the bashō itself.

Such tales spread across lands and generations, and people came to say that the banana plant, though soft and harmless in appearance, might hide a spirit if it lived long enough. For this reason, groves of old plantains were sometimes regarded with caution, as places where a quiet tree might one day step into the world in human form.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 菟菟鬼. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8A%AD%E8%95%89%E9%AC%BC

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Sunamura no onryō

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Ghost of Sunamura
Category: Plant

The Myth

In the farming village of Sunamura, a place once known for its wide pumpkin fields, people spoke of a restless spirit that wandered the patches after dark.

The being was said to be shaped from the very plants that grew there. Its body twisted together from pumpkin vines and leaves, forming thin limbs that crept and dragged across the soil. Atop this fragile frame it carried a large, heavy pumpkin for a head — bright orange and swollen, as if freshly cut from the field. The spirit seemed burdened by it, clutching the great fruit in its arms as it moved.

Night after night, villagers claimed the creature emerged among the rows of pumpkins. It would shuffle through the fields, its vines rustling in the wind, and when it saw a person it would lurch forward in pursuit. Those who fled said they could hear the scraping of vines and the dull thump of the pumpkin as it struggled to follow.

No one knew whose spirit it was or why it had taken root there. Some believed it was tied to the land itself, born from the fields that fed the village. Others thought it might be the ghost of someone whose life had ended in sorrow among the farms, now bound to the harvest forever.

Whatever its origin, the pumpkin spirit became part of the village’s night stories, a reminder that even the most ordinary crops might conceal something uncanny once the sun had set. And though Sunamura itself faded with time, the tale of the vine-bound ghost lingered like a shadow in the fields that once grew there.

Gallery

Sources

yokai.com. (n.d.). Sunamura no onryō. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://yokai.com/sunamuranoonryou/?srsltid=AfmBOoqa20CQnB3x0lnLhtRVs2ujtNF7zgGjpZQFF0c5MqokSOgFsGEZ

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Hayauri-dokke

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Tradition / Region: Japanese folklore and medieval court legend
Alternate Names: Poisoned Melon of Seimei, Snake Melon
Category: Plant

The Myth

On the first day of the fifth month, during a time of ritual austerity for the regent Fujiwara no Michinaga, several notable men were gathered in seclusion. Among them were the onmyōji Abe no Seimei, a learned monk, a court physician, and the warrior Minamoto no Yoshiie.

That day, a tribute arrived from Nara — a gift of early melons. Yet because the court was observing strict ritual purity, doubt arose about whether the offering should be accepted. Michinaga ordered that the matter be divined, and Seimei was asked to determine whether the fruit was safe.

After examining the melons, Seimei declared that one among them carried danger. To confirm this, the monk began to chant prayers over the fruit. As his voice continued, one of the melons began to move on its own, swaying slightly as if something inside it stirred.

The physician was then ordered to treat the melon. He lifted it, studied it carefully, and without a word inserted two needles into its rind. At once the movement ceased.

Finally, Minamoto no Yoshiie was told to open it. Drawing his sword, he split the melon cleanly in two. Inside, coiled tightly in the flesh, was a small snake. The needles had pierced both of its eyes, and Yoshiie’s cut had neatly severed its neck.

The gathering understood that the fruit had concealed a hidden danger, and that only careful divination, prayer, and skill had revealed and destroyed it.

Another tale tells of a similar event at the imperial court, when melons sent from Yamato were examined by Seimei, a physician, and a monk. They too sensed an unnatural force within the fruit. As prayers were spoken, one melon split open, and a snake longer than a foot burst forth, dying at once.

Such stories spread widely, and the strange melons became known as signs that even the simplest offering from the earth might hide unseen forces within it, revealed only by wisdom, ritual, and a steady hand.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Hayauri-dokke. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1084458875.html

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Naki

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Crying Tree, Weeping Tree
Category: Plant

The Myth

Along National Route 234 in Sakuragaoka, Kuriyama Town, there once stood a great Japanese elm known as the Naki — the Crying Tree. For many years it grew beside the road near the Kuriyama Tunnel, and travelers came to know it as a place where something unseen lingered.

During the Taishō era, when the road was being widened, workers tried to cut the tree down to straighten the route. As their saws bit into the trunk, a strange sound was said to echo from the wood — a thin, drawn-out cry like “squeak, squeak” or a long, wavering wail. Word spread quickly, and soon people whispered that the tree itself was crying out.

Misfortune followed those who tried to harm it. Men who struck it with axes fell ill, others were injured when they tried to pull it down, and some were said to have died. Fearing a curse, the workers abandoned the attempt and left the tree standing. The road was completed with a bend around it, as if the tree had forced the path to yield.

People believed the tree was inhabited by restless spirits. Some said it held the souls of prisoners from the Ichikichi Penal Colony who had died during the brutal labor of tunnel construction in the Meiji era. Others spoke of a cook who hanged herself after mistreatment, or of a young Ainu girl and a Japanese man who had taken their lives together. The tree became known as a place where grief had taken root.

Stories gathered around it. There were tales of accidents in front of the tree, of a taxi driver who vanished nearby, and of travelers who felt watched as they passed. When the branches were cut away after the trunk was felled, those who took the wood home were said to meet with misfortune. One old man burned a branch he had taken, only to die before winter passed. Another who tried to keep a piece of the stump dreamed of dreadful visions and hurried to return it.

In time, even construction work elsewhere was linked to the tree’s spirit. When concrete refused to harden during tunnel building in the late 1940s, workers offered sacred sake and prayers at the tree. Afterward, the work was said to proceed without trouble.

Though feared, the Crying Tree was also cherished by locals, who saw it as a witness to the hardships and tragedies of the past. In 1970, a drunken worker finally cut it down with a chainsaw, dismissing the old stories as superstition. Rumors later spread of misfortune following him, though some said he lived on without harm.

The stump remained, and the road’s curve stayed in place as if still honoring the tree. Years later, a young elm believed to have grown from its seed was planted nearby and called the Second Crying Tree, so that the memory of the old one — and the stories rooted in it — would not disappear.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Naki. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1078430827.html

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Hitogataimo

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Tradition / Region: Japanese folklore and ascetic traditions
Alternate Names: Ningyoimo, Doll Potato
Category: Plant, immortality food, sacred root

The Myth

Among the foods said to nourish those who walk the path of immortality, there is a mysterious root known as the Hitogataimo, the Doll Potato. It was counted among the natural foods favored by hermits and ascetics who lived in the mountains and sought long life beyond the ordinary span of humans.

These seekers of immortality gathered their sustenance from the wilderness — nuts, herbs, mushrooms, and roots — believing that untouched natural foods carried the pure strength of heaven and earth. Among these, some were said to take on strange and meaningful shapes. One such wonder was the Doll Potato.

The root was said to resemble a tiny human figure, as though the earth itself had shaped it in the likeness of a person. Because of this form, it was thought to hold unusual vitality. Those who found it treated it with care, believing that it was not an ordinary food but something touched by the same mysterious forces that grant long life to immortals.

Stories say that hermits who discovered such a root would dry it, preserve it, or consume it in ritual fashion. Eating it was believed to strengthen the body, purify the spirit, and bring one closer to the hidden state of transcendence sought in the mountains.

Thus the Hitogataimo remained known as one of the secret foods of the immortals — a root shaped like a person, growing unseen in the earth, waiting for the one destined to find it.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Hitogataimo. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1074589195.html

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