I picked the Jubokko to research because I found it interesting. Also there is this nice paradox surrounding it’s existence which is fun to think about.

Basically Jubokko are trees that were at the site of a major battle that caused them to drink massive amounts of blood. That turned them into yokai and then they developed a thirst for blood. When someone passes under the tree, it grabs them and lifts them off of the ground. Then it will use tube like branches to suck their blood out. Eventually various organisms will eat away at the flesh of its victim and then the polished bones will fall back to the ground. If you were to cut the bark of the Jubokko then blood would bleed from the wound before quickly healing over.

I do think that the Japanese Yokai are different than western monsters. I am not really sure how to compare them though. Western monsters seem to be more dangerous than Yokai to me because pretty much all of them will kill you. The Yokai don’t seem to be as deadly on average and instead have more members that are tricksters and will bring misfortune but don’t seem to kill as often.

I don’t tend to believe in monsters and such but I am not completely opposed to the idea. Monsters are just things we don’t understand after all. I cannot disprove the existence of yokai, monsters, spirits, and such. However, since no one can prove their existence I don’t feel that I should believe the random, unfounded claims.

One thing about the Jubokko is that basically if you can recognize it, you are dead or about to be. Which means that proving its existence is incredibly difficult. The only way I have thought of to prove its existence is to have someone walk under it and someone else observing and the person observing would be out of its range and would survive. Although the person walking under the tree wouldn’t, so that is not an ideal way of proving it.

On the other hand, disproving it would also be almost impossible because how do you prove that something doesn’t exist? One way that you could do it scientifically is to pour massive amounts of human blood on the roots of a tree and see if it turns into a jubokko. Although, that still isn’t the most concrete because maybe by some fluke it didn’t turn into one. So in summary, we cannot really prove or disprove its existence.

Jubokko. https://www.pandius.com/jubokko.html. Accessed 18 Oct. 2024.

Jubokko | Yokai.Com. https://yokai.com/jubokko/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2024.

Vampire Trees – The Bloodsucking Jubokko of Japan – Precision Tree & Landscape. 13 Oct. 2015, https://precisiontreeandlandscape.com/vampire-trees/.