Today’s yokai is another request, and it’s perfect for a Halloween feel. Jubokko is a tree which grows in the remains of a battlefield where many people died. The seed feeds on the blood of the dead which has soaked into the soil, and over time the tree develops a taste for blood. The vampiric tree looks like a normal, healthy tree, except that when people get close enough to it, the tree snatches them up and sucks away all of their blood. Scary!

Jubokko

Jubokko is actually a lesser-known yokai. According to my sources (admittedly I’m mostly using Wikipedia and The Obakemono Project), there’s actually no record of this yokai in old folklore or literature — it was possibly invented by the famous yokai comic writer, Shigeru Mizuki. If you’re interested in yokai, I strongly recommend you search for some of Mizuki’s artwork. He is author of the series GeGeGe no Kitaro, and it’s pretty much THE source from which most people know about yokai today. There’s also a really fun movie based on his work (and directed by the awesome Takashi Miike!) called The Great Yokai War. But you don’t have to take my word for it! *cue Reading Raindow music*