E01 - 001 Kitsune

E01 – 001 Kitsune

Price range: 34.00 $ through 39.00 $ Tax

The Wise Trickster of the Sacred Forests

Japanese Name 狐
Romanization Kitsune
Classification Shapeshifting Animal Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■■□□□ (Level II – Caution)
First Recorded 8th Century CE
The Kitsune is among Japan’s oldest and most enduring supernatural fox traditions. Both guardian and trickster, it has appeared in Japanese stories for more than a thousand years, serving as a sacred messenger in some religious contexts while elsewhere deceiving, possessing or interacting with humans through transformation and illusion.

E01 - 002 Kodama

E01 – 002 Kodama

Price range: 34.00 $ through 39.00 $ Tax

The Silent Guardian of Ancient Trees

Japanese Name 木霊
Romanization Kodama
Classification Tree Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■□□□□ (Level I – Minimal)
First Recorded 927 CE — Engishiki

Kodama are spirits associated with trees, particularly old or significant trees. Japanese tradition remembers them as presences inhabiting the wooded landscape, capable of inspiring reverence as well as fear. The word later also came to mean an echo, reflecting an older belief that voices returning from mountains and valleys could be the response of a spirit within the landscape.

E01 - 003 Bake-Danuki

E01 – 003 Bake-Danuki

Price range: 34.00 $ through 39.00 $ Tax

The Shape-Shifter Beside the Road

Japanese Name 化け狸
Romanization Bake-danuki
Classification Shapeshifting Animal Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■■□□□ (Level II – Caution)
First Recorded Early 17th Century CE

Bake-danuki are supernatural tanuki associated with disguise, transformation, mischief and comic deception. Unlike the more ethereal fox traditions, tanuki stories often feel earthy and theatrical, with the animal fooling travellers, disguising itself as people or objects, and turning ordinary situations into elaborate supernatural performances.

E01 - 004 Jubokko

E01 – 004 Jubokko

Price range: 34.00 $ through 39.00 $ Tax

The Blood-Drinking Tree of the Battlefield

Japanese Name 樹木子
Romanization Jubokko
Classification Blood-Feeding Tree
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■■■■□ (Level IV – Severe)
First Recorded 1966 CE
Jubokko is a modern yōkai described as a tree transformed by death and bloodshed. In its best-known form, it grows on former battlefields, absorbs the blood of the dead through its roots, and later attacks living people who pass beneath its branches. Despite often being presented today as an ancient Japanese monster, no secure pre-twentieth-century source for this familiar form has been identified.

E01 - 005 Yamabiko

E01 – 005 Yamabiko

Price range: 34.00 $ through 44.00 $ Tax

The Voice That Returns from the Mountain

Japanese Name 山彦
Romanization Yamabiko
Classification Mountain Echo Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■□□□□ (Level I – Minimal)
First Recorded 1776 CE — Gazu Hyakki Yagyō
Yamabiko is the supernatural presence traditionally associated with echoes returning from mountains and deep valleys. Rather than being defined by one fixed body, it is most strongly identified by sound: a human voice, shout, or sudden noise repeated back from somewhere unseen. Toriyama Sekien gave Yamabiko a recognizable illustrated form in 1776, but later regional traditions continued to describe it primarily as a mysterious answering voice within the mountains.

E01 - 006 Nogitsune

E01 – 006 Nogitsune

44.00 $ Tax

The Red-Haired Spirit of the Banyan

Japanese Name キジムナー
Romanization Kijimuna
Classification Shapeshifting Animal Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■■□□□ (Level II – Caution)
First Recorded Traditional Okinawan Folklore
Kijimuna are spirits from Okinawan folklore, especially associated with large gajumaru, or banyan trees. Traditions describe them as small, red-haired beings that may form friendships with humans, help with fishing, and share food or drink. Their relationships are often reciprocal rather than purely hostile, but offending one can bring trouble. The Kijimuna is therefore less a simple forest monster than a supernatural neighbour whose goodwill depends on how humans behave toward it.

E01 - 007 Kijimuna

E01 – 007 Kijimuna

44.00 $ Tax

The Thing That Drops from the Trees

Japanese Name 釣瓶落とし
Romanization Tsurube-otoshi
Classification Tree Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■■■□□ (Level III – Dangerous)
First Recorded Early 20th Century Folklore Records
Tsurube-otoshi is a regional Japanese apparition associated with large trees and sudden danger from above. Modern depictions often show an enormous human head dropping from the canopy, but recorded traditions are far less consistent. In some places, a bucket descends from a tree; elsewhere an unseen being calls out, seizes travellers, or drops suddenly from the branches. The name and downward movement are more stable than any single physical form.

E01 - 008 Tsurube-otoshi

E01 – 008 Tsurube-otoshi

44.00 $ Tax

The Thing That Drops from the Trees

Japanese Name 釣瓶落とし
Romanization Tsurube-otoshi
Classification Ambush Spirit
Expedition Expedition I — Sacred Forests
Threat Level ■■■□□ (Level III – Dangerous)
First Recorded Regional Oral Tradition
Tsurube-otoshi is a regional Japanese apparition associated with large trees and sudden danger from above. It is often depicted today as an enormous human head dropping from the canopy, but recorded traditions describe several different forms, including falling buckets, unseen voices, tree-dwelling beings, and creatures that seize travellers from overhead. More than any single appearance, Tsurube-otoshi is defined by one unsettling idea: something hidden above the road suddenly descends.