Furutsubaki-no-rei

The name Furutsubaki-no-rei (古椿の霊) denotes a spirit arising from an old camellia tree; sources present local origin variants rather than a single unified cosmogony. Regional accounts include an Akita temple tree (a 700-year-old camellia at Kanmanji Temple) whose nocturnal cries announce future tragedy; a Gifu roadside camellia that 'masquerades' as a shining beautiful woman; a Higo (Kumamoto) tale linking the making of a wooden pestle from a camellia tree to the tree's rebirth; and a Yamagata kaidan in which a woman-spirit breathes on a merchant who is transformed into a bee and enclosed in a flower. These localized tales together place the spirit as an animating agency that develops in venerable camellia trees and interacts with nearby communities.

In human guise the Furutsubaki-no-rei is frequently described as a young, beautiful woman in kimono, embodying the camellia's beauty (attested in multiple regional accounts). Its more 'true' or underlying form is reported as a grotesque tree bearing red disfigured heads or red blossoms on its trunk — imagery explicitly compared to camellia petals falling like severed heads. Sources also describe the tree-spirit manifesting as an apparition that shines by the roadside in some variants.

Attested behaviors are presented as variant, regional motifs rather than uniform, consistent powers. Commonly the spirit emits a sad, mournful cry at night (reported as an omen in Akita and other tales) and entices or deceives people by beauty or sympathy. Many accounts emphasize that passersby are frightened away when approaching the tree; in rarer tales people disappear or are found lifeless near the camellia. One Yamagata tale records a transformation motif in which a merchant becomes a bee and is enclosed in a camellia flower. A Higo account links the making of camellia wood objects to regenerative or rebirth effects for the tree/spirit. Sutra chanting by a Buddhist priest (Osho) is recorded as an attempted remedy in at least one story but failed to restore the transformed man.