The essay Churyo Manroku records encounters with uncanny figures late at night in Ryukyuan banana groves and claims that carrying a blade wards them off. It also warns that women walking through banana thickets after dusk may meet a handsome man or a specter and become pregnant. In Shinshu, a monk reading at night is tempted by a beauty; when he slashes her with a dagger, the next morning a banana plant in the garden is found cut, revealing a plant spirit in disguise. The Noh piece Basho, based on Chinese lore, explores whether plants can attain enlightenment.