Mythology

Money Tree

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Kane-ki
Category: Plant

The Myth

People spoke of a wondrous tree known as the Money Tree, a plant said to bring wealth instead of fruit. In pictures and tales, its branches did not bear leaves or blossoms, but coins of gold and silver that glittered in place of flowers.

Some images showed the tree standing tall while the gods Ebisu and Daikoku, bringers of fortune, watched over it. Its trunk and branches were sometimes inscribed with words about careful living — warnings against carelessness and praise for good planning — as though the tree itself taught the secrets of prosperity.

One tale tells of a lecturer who gathered a crowd before a large pot marked with the words “abundance is here.” He explained that although people believed money trees did not exist in the world, this was not true. The seeds of such trees, he said, were already in every household.

Yet those seeds rarely sprouted. People neglected their duties, forgot their work, and allowed the soil of their livelihood to dry and weaken. When the ground of effort was barren, no tree could grow, no matter how good the seed.

The lecturer said that great wealth may belong to heaven, but smaller fortunes grow from human labor. Merchants, craftsmen, farmers, and even warriors all possess their own money trees, shaped by the tools of their trade. If they care for their work as one tends a plant, the tree will surely grow.

Hearing this, the listeners realized that the money tree was not something distant or magical, but something already within their reach. And they agreed among themselves that the tree of wealth stands not in some hidden land, but in their own homes, waiting to be tended.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Money Tree. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1074477691.html

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Corn Spirit

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Tradition / Region: Japanese folklore
Alternate Names: Nanban Millet, Korean Millet, Chinese Millet
Category: Plant, Corn

The Myth

Corn was brought to Japan long ago by ships arriving from the southern seas. First planted in Kyushu, it gradually spread across the country. Because of its foreign origin, people called it Nanban millet, linking it to distant lands beyond the horizon.

As it became more common, strange stories began to gather around the plant. Some fields were said to grow ears with kernels so large they seemed unnatural, as though the crop had taken on a life of its own. In one tale, a lotus flower bloomed from a cornfield in memory of a girl whose devotion had outlived her death, and the field was said to hold her spirit. In another story, a stalk of corn bent and twisted until it resembled a farmer’s beloved chicken, as if the plant were trying to imitate the living creature it had watched each day.

Because of such occurrences, people in some regions grew wary of planting corn near their homes. Certain families believed the crop brought misfortune, and in a few places it was said that only particular households — or those bearing certain surnames — must never grow it at all.

Artists and storytellers also imagined the crop taking on more visible forms. In popular illustrated tales and games, corn sometimes appeared as a yōkai. One well-known depiction shows a ghost shaped from corn rising from a riverbank, confronting a murderer as though the plant itself had taken the role of an avenging spirit.

So corn, though an ordinary food, came to be remembered in story and image as a plant touched by the uncanny — a foreign grain that could grow strangely, take on forms of memory and emotion, and even appear as a spirit among the living.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Corn Spirit. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1067224019.html

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Matsutake-bakemono

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Matsutake Monster
Category: Plant, mushroom

The Myth

Long ago, on a distant place known as Dwarf Island, there lived tiny creatures skilled in transformation. Yet they grew bored of practicing their tricks in a land where nothing seemed new. Wanting to improve their powers, they decided to travel to Japan, where many famous spirits and monsters were said to live.

They hid themselves inside a hollow in the mast of a great ship and at last reached Osaka. When they stepped ashore, they were stunned by what they saw. Everything was enormous — the houses, the streets, and above all the people. Still, they did not abandon their plan.

They journeyed to Mount Yoshino, hoping to learn from well-known monsters there. They sought out Imohoribo of Mount Imoyama and Semushibo of Mount Seyama, but the two only laughed at them. Mocking their small size, they joked that the little creatures should crawl into their ears and clean out the dirt. Ashamed and discouraged, the travelers left.

They went on to visit other famous beings, including a monster of Saga and the mighty Fuji Daitahoshi. Yet everywhere they went, their size made them seem insignificant, and they could only flee from the towering figures they met.

At last they reached Miho no Matsubara. There, from the forest floor, appeared a strange being — a Matsutake-bakemono, a monster in the form of a matsutake mushroom. It called out, “Who am I? I am only a small thing.”

Hearing this, the tiny travelers explained their journey. The matsutake monster welcomed them kindly and told them that being small could be an advantage, since people would not easily fear them. It gave them careful directions toward Mount Hakone and urged them to continue their training.

But when they arrived in Hakone, the monster there refused to take them as students. Instead, it warned them that their fate in Japan was uncertain and advised them to return home while they still could.

Before leaving, the little creatures went down to Edo, hoping at least to frighten the townspeople and prove their abilities. Yet their plan failed. Their bodies were so small that people treated them like toys, picking them up and playing with them. After being handled and tossed about, they were finally captured.

In the end, the tiny monsters saw a painted crane by the artist Sesshū and, believing it to be real, were so startled that they vanished completely, disappearing without a trace. Thus their journey ended, remembered only as a curious tale of wandering spirits and the small mushroom monster who alone had treated them with kindness.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Matsutake-bakemono. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1013072024.html

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Ghost Shimeji

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Transforming Shimeji, Phantom Shimeji
Category: Plant, mushroom

The Myth

In the mountains near Shiroishi, there once stood a small, poor temple where a priest lived alone. The forest around it was deep and silent, and few people ever came that way.

One night, after the priest lay down to sleep, he noticed movement in his room. A group of figures had appeared, all dressed in white kimonos and white hats. They walked in a slow circle around his bed, again and again, without speaking. Terrified, the priest pulled his futon over himself and watched through a small gap, hardly daring to breathe.

Only one of the figures made a sound. As the group circled, that person repeated in a low voice, “Salt and miso, how frightening… salt and miso, how frightening…”

The same thing happened the next night. And the night after that as well. Each time the silent procession returned, circling his bed while the same voice muttered its strange warning.

At last, the priest resolved to discover who they were. Before sleeping, he prepared a needle threaded with string and kept it hidden beside him. When the figures appeared again, he quietly reached out and stitched the thread into the hem of the robe of the one who spoke of salt and miso.

Soon after, the figures left as always.

The next morning, the priest gathered the thread and began to follow it. It led him out of the temple, through the forest, and into a grove of towering cedars. There, behind the temple grounds, stood an enormous old stump. All around it grew countless clusters of shimeji mushrooms, packed so thickly they seemed to cover the wood like a living carpet.

The priest understood then that the white-clad visitors had been these mushrooms in disguise. They had come each night hoping he would eat them, for it was said that if salt or miso were sprinkled on shimeji mushrooms, they would stop growing.

And so the priest left the forest undisturbed, knowing that the silent guests of the night were not spirits of the dead, but mushrooms seeking a place at his table.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Ghost Shimeji. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1013072022.html

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Shadow Wood

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Tradition / Region: Chinese mythology
Alternate Names: Gall Wood
Category: Plant

The Myth

Shadow Wood is a mysterious tree said to grow on Yingzhou Island, a distant and sacred place filled with steep mountains and the dwellings of immortals. Among these divine peaks, the tree stands as one of the island’s wonders.

Its leaves shine in an unusual way. When seen beneath the sun, their clustered forms resemble stars scattered across the sky, so that the tree appears as though it holds a fragment of the heavens within its branches.

The Shadow Wood grows slowly, and centuries pass before it offers its gift. Only once in a thousand years does it bear fruit. When it finally ripens, the fruit resembles a melon, with a green skin and dark, black flesh inside. Those fortunate enough to eat it are said to feel their bodies grow light, as if freed from earthly weight, and some claim it brings them closer to the state of immortals.

Because of its strange nature, the tree is also associated with gall wood, the knotted growths that sometimes form on tree roots. These natural swellings were thought to share in the tree’s power, and so the name Shadow Wood came to be used for them as well.

Thus the tree of Yingzhou remained a sign of the immortal realms — a plant whose fruit ripened only once in an age, and whose taste could lift a mortal body toward the heavens.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 影木. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/影木

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Longqi Grass

by

Tradition / Region: Chinese mythology
Alternate Names: Dragon Beard Grass, Jinyun Grass, Dragon Fodder
Category: Plant

The Myth

On Donghai Island, in the waters of the Longju River, there was said to grow a remarkable and powerful grass known as Longqi. The place was already famous in legend as the pasture where King Mu of Zhou once raised his eight extraordinary horses, and it was believed that this grass was the source of their unmatched strength.

Longqi grew among stones and shallow water along the riverbanks and roadsides. Its shoots rose straight from the ground without branches, slender and upright. In summer, small spikes formed at the tips, blooming into flowers that later produced tiny red fruits.

To ordinary eyes it was only a plant, yet its power was known to animals and people alike. Horses that grazed on Longqi became swift beyond measure, able to run thousands of miles in a single day. Because of this, people said that the grass carried the breath of dragons, and an old saying spread: a dragon plant can turn a horse into a dragon foal.

The grass was also valued for its medicinal qualities. It was said to be slightly cold in nature and not poisonous. When used as a remedy, it could drive out harmful forces from the heart, ease troubled urination, cure swelling and sores, and relieve rheumatism. Those who consumed it regularly were believed to grow stronger, their bodies becoming lighter, their sight and hearing sharper, and their lives longer.

Because it could be harvested, tied into bundles, and fed to horses, people also called it Dragon Fodder. Travelers and scholars wrote that wherever water met stone, the grass might be found, quietly growing while carrying the hidden strength of dragons within it.

Thus Longqi was remembered as a humble plant with extraordinary gifts — a grass that could grant speed, health, and long life to those who knew its secret.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). 龙剑. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/龙剑

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Ninmenju

by

Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: Jinmenju
Category: Plant

The Myth

In remote mountain valleys there grows a strange and unsettling tree known as the Ninmenju, the Human-Face Tree. At first glance it appears ordinary, its trunk and branches no different from any other woodland tree. But when it blossoms, its true nature is revealed.

Instead of normal flowers, the Ninmenju produces heads shaped like human faces. These faces cannot speak, yet they are alive in their own way. They smile constantly, their expressions gentle and curious, and sometimes they even laugh softly among themselves as they sway in the wind.

When autumn comes, the tree bears fruit shaped like these same human faces. Travelers who dared taste them said the fruit was sweet and sour, pleasant despite its eerie form.

The tree reacts to those who pass beneath it. If a traveler laughs at the strange sight of the smiling heads, the flowers will laugh in return. Their laughter echoes back from the branches, as though the tree itself is mocking the person below. But if the laughter grows too loud or too harsh, the delicate heads begin to wither. One by one they wilt, loosen, and fall from the tree to the ground.

Stories say that this tree did not originate in Japan. It was said to have come from distant lands far to the west, beyond deserts and foreign kingdoms, in territories known only from travelers’ tales. From there, its legend journeyed across countries and centuries until it became known in the mountains of Japan, where the smiling faces still bloom in hidden valleys.

Gallery

Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Jinmenju. In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmenju

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Tree of Waq Waq

by

Tradition / Region: Arabic mythology
Alternate Names: Waqwaq Tree, Tree of Women, Waq Waq Islands Tree
Category: Plant

The Myth

Far beyond the known seas, on distant and mysterious islands, travelers spoke of a marvelous tree unlike any other. This was the Tree of Waq Waq, a tree said not to bear fruit, but living beings.

From its branches grew figures shaped like humans. In some tellings they were small children, hanging from the limbs like strange blossoms. In others, especially in the western Islamic lands, the fruits of the tree were beautiful women. They formed gradually, swelling and ripening as if nourished by the tree itself, until they were complete.

When the time came, the figures would detach and fall to the ground. As they dropped, they gave out a sharp cry — “Waq! Waq!” — the sound from which the tree took its name. Some were said to live after falling, while others perished the moment they struck the earth, like fruit that had ripened only to spoil.

Sailors, merchants, and scholars repeated stories of these islands, placing them somewhere at the edges of the world, beyond India or near the lands of the rising sun. Some described entire shores lined with these trees, their branches heavy with human forms swaying in the wind.

Because the tree produced only women in certain accounts, it was said that this was how the island’s people reproduced, the tree itself sustaining their lineage generation after generation.

Thus the Tree of Waq Waq stood in legend as one of the wonders of the world — a living tree whose fruit was human life itself.

Gallery

Sources

Sibree, J. (1896). Madagascar before the conquest: The island, the country, and the people, with chapters on travel and topography, folk-lore, strange customs and superstitions, the animal life of the island, and mission work and progress among the inhabitants. New York: Macmillan; London: T. F. Unwin.

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Alruinmannetje

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Tradition / Region: Dutch Mythology
Alternate Names: Galgenmannetje, Pismannetje, Alruin
Category: Plant

The Myth

The Alruinmannetje is said to be the root of the poisonous mandrake plant, shaped vaguely like a tiny human figure. Because of this form, people believed the plant was not merely a root but a being with a spirit living inside it.

It was feared above all when pulled from the earth. The Alruinmannetje was said to scream with such a terrible, piercing cry that anyone who heard it would fall dead on the spot. Only those who managed to survive this dreadful moment could claim the root. If they then treated it well — giving it a small bed, dressing it in cloth, and feeding it milk and food — the spirit within would become loyal to its keeper.

Once cared for properly, the Alruinmannetje was believed to whisper secrets to its owner and reveal hidden knowledge. It could also bring wealth. At night, it would fetch money for the household, and coins placed beside it in the evening would be found doubled by morning.

The root was sometimes called Pismannetje because people believed it sprang from the urine of a freshly hanged man beneath the gallows. From this grim origin, the plant gained its connection to death, magic, and the unseen world.

In Friesland, the name Alrún was also used for a witch from Raerd who possessed the power to heal people and lift enchantments, showing how the name of the root became linked not only to a plant, but to human magic as well.

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/

Daigo Hakurō

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Tradition / Region: Japanese Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Wolf

The Myth

In the mountains of Daigo in Yamashiro Province, many wolves were said to roam, troubling travelers and woodcutters who entered the forests.

One day a young boy went into the mountains to gather firewood. As he worked, a wolf suddenly appeared, seized him, and carried him deep into the wilderness. When the wolf reached a grassy place, it set the boy down. Realizing he could not escape by force, the boy pretended to be dead.

The wolf clawed open the earth and dug a large pit. It pushed the boy into the hole and buried him beneath the soil. Yet each time the boy tried to move, the wolf returned to sniff the ground, guarding its hidden prey. At last, when the wolf seemed satisfied and went away, the boy dug himself free and climbed a tall tree nearby, hiding among the leaves to watch.

After some time, the wolf returned — this time accompanied by a great white wolf, far larger than the first. Together they dug open the pit, only to find it empty. The first wolf ran about in agitation, howling in anger, never suspecting the boy above them. At length it lowered its ears, bowed its head, and crouched before the great white wolf as if in shame.

The white wolf stood still for a time. Then it rose and struck the other wolf upon the head with its paw.

The punished wolf remained crouched and motionless. Evening fell, and the boy stayed in the tree through the night. By morning, passing woodcutters came near, and the boy cried out to them, asking for rescue and warning that a wolf sat below.

The men rushed forward with axes and blades, but the wolf did not move. When they approached, they found it already dead. Its skull had been crushed, and its head lay broken open.

When the boy told what he had witnessed, everyone was astonished. They praised his quick thinking and spoke of the strange justice of wolves, recalling the old saying that even tigers and wolves possess a sense of duty.

Thus the tale was told as proof that even among beasts, there can be order, judgment, and punishment.

Gallery

Sources

Tyz-Yokai Blog. (n.d.). Daigo Hakurō. Retrieved March 1, 2026, from https://tyz-yokai.blog.jp/archives/1074589299.html

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