YOKAI.JP

Human-Faced Tree

neen-MEN-joo

Human-Faced Tree

Human-Faced Tree

Their soul is listening — speak, and they will answer.

Basic Description

The Human-Faced Tree is a strange tree said to bear blossoms like human heads. It appears in Toriyama Sekien’s Konjaku Hyakki Shūi and in Wakan Sansai Zue, which cites the Chinese Sancai Tuhui. The flowers do not understand speech; when addressed, they only smile. If they keep laughing, the blossoms wither and fall. The creature is known more as a bibliographic, proto-natural-history marvel than as a native Japanese folk belief.

Folklore & Legends

Sancai Tuhui states that this tree grows in the Dashi country a thousand li to the southwest. It opens flowers like human heads; when questioned they smile but do not speak, and repeated laughter causes the blossoms to drop. Wakan Sansai Zue quotes this account, and Sekien stylized it in his artwork. A similar citation appears in Aizu’s Rōō Chawa, but indigenous Japanese oral traditions are scarce. Illustrations show it growing in mountain valleys, blooming in clusters.

Yokai Cards1

Human-Faced Tree across multiple art-style decks

Card gallery

Detailed Analysis

Based on Edo-period natural history notes and shaped by Toriyama Sekien’s pictorial intent. It is a tree that grows thick in mountain valleys and bears blossoms at the tips of its branches that resemble human faces. The flowers do not understand human speech, but are said to smile at calls or sounds. When laughter overlaps, the petals lose strength and eventually wither and fall. In Japan it was received as a tale of foreign curiosities, lacking specific local toponyms or anecdotes. The faces vary from old to young, often depicted grinning with teeth as they sway in the wind. Its true nature is unclear—treated either as a plant spirit or a rare anomalous tree—and it was recorded more as a curiosity than a source of fear.

Character Profile

This section is our own creative profile for storytelling. It is not historical fact or scholarship.

Rarity
Rare
Personality
unworldly, taciturn yet smiles in response to human presence
Compatibility
prefers silence, responsive to human voices, not prone to attachment
Abilities
smiles back in response to voices and presences, forms colonies and bears many human-faced blossoms in season, drops its flowers under strong stimulus
Weaknesses
prone to withering under excessive stimulus, said to be weak to cold winds and dryness (details uncertain)
Habitat
mountain valleys (per sources), the Land of Great Eaters (per bibliographic accounts)

🔮Yokai Compatibility Test

For more detailed information and diagnosis results about Illustrated Compendium Tradition—Sekien Design Edition, please click here.

Interested in this type of yokai?

Discover the yokai most similar to your personality with our yokai diagnosis

Start Yokai Diagnosis

Meet your guardian yokai at the shrine

Draw an omikuji fortune and discover the yokai watching over you today.