Jinmenju

The jinmenju as illustrated by Toriyama Sekien.

Jinmenju or Ninmenju (人面樹, human-face tree^?) is a strange tree illustrated in Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. It grows in remote mountain valleys in China. The jinmenju's fruit appear to be human heads. The faces are always smiling or laughing, even as they fall from their branch.

Popular culture

Episodes 57-58 of the InuYasha anime series revolve around Tokajin, a sage who feeds humans to a demonic tree with human-faced fruit in exchange for the immortality the fruit can grant.

In the music video for Dir en grey's song Obscure, a woman resembling a geisha is seen taking a baby's head from a tree.

The Pokémon Exeggutor may have been based on the Jinmenju.

In several Castlevania games, there is a monster called "corpseweed" that appears as a tall plant with a head dangling from the end.

In the Sega Saturn port of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night there's a new enemy Jinmenju which looks almost exactly like the tree described by this article.

In the game Tomba! 2, there are fruits in Donglin Forest that either cry or laugh.

House of The Dead 3 has an enemy tree like creature, called Sun, with human faces, which may be inspired by this creature.

External links

• arasi.com (Japanese)