#waqwaq tree

[lilystargazerwhite]

Touhou style myths! The Ninmenju is a yokai that has a very murky origin, but is thought to be from somewhere in the Middle East, that then traveled to China and then to Japan. In the Japanese account, the Ninmenju is a tree of human (baby) heads, who will laugh and cry and such. When they laugh too hard, they fall from the tree. Arabian and African tellings range from the tree eating animals and taking their heads, to growing full grown women who fall with a “waq waq” sound. These trees produced fruit in autumn and had a very sweet sour taste. 

WaqWaq is the name of the alleged island or island chain this tree is native to. This island, said to be inhabited by a kingdom of entirely women, resided “east of China” and was incredibly plentiful in precious metals.

The connection of the WaqWaq tree to the Ninmenju is a direct but somewhat complicated trail. The Ninmenju originates from a transcription of a 1600s Chinese text, which site the tree as coming from Daishi-koku, taken from the Ming distantly name for the Islamic world which came from the Persian word for Muslim. And while the Smith can be traced to Arabic origins under the name Al-waqwaq, the Arabic claim its origin as “Zanj” which is modern day Zanzibar. Whole lot of he said she said.

The real life equivalent of this tree is thought to be the pandanus, which is grown in Indonesia and Madagascar, referred to as “Bakkuwan” and “Vakwa” respectively. The real life equivalent of this island’s location is very murky and heavily debated, ranging from Polynesian to being somewhere near Madagascar, due to the old Arabic word for an area near Zanzibar being used to describe the location.

What’s an interesting tidbit is that records of Africans exist in Javanese writings as early as the 15th century, while bantu writings recall a failed invasion by island people by the name of Wakwak, who sought their metals and to enslave. These accounts, along with the pandanus fruit being found in both (modern) countries, meaning it’s not outlandish to conclude that the WaqWaq island is a combination of middle ages Polynesia and Zanj, the name and origin of the tree coming from the islands, while the stories of riches and location from Africa. This is just what I think, of course, and no one will ever truly know. Maybe there is an island of waqwaq out there, and people just sucked really really bad at making maps in the Middle Ages.

I wanted to do this one because it’s the only Yokai I’ve seen that is thought to originate from as far as Africa. I think it’s really cool when myths travel this far but still retain a traceable identity.

[videogamepoc]

The fifth annual Game Devs of Color Expo Direct is packed with new announcements from dozens of amazing games by creators of color. Tune in for exclusive reveals, the latest launches, and more updates. We're so excited for you to see what our community has been working on!

Games and timestamps featured under the “read more”:

0:00 Show Start

1:04 - Aikyam - Thousand Stars Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/23...)

2:33 - High Times - Yangyang Mobile (https://store.steampowered.com/app/22...)

3:27 - Pekoe - Kitten Cup Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/16...)

4:23 - Call of Boba - Tomatoast Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/23...)

5:46 - After School Afterlife - Mini Bunnies (https://store.steampowered.com/app/16...)

6:50 - Die in the Dungeon - ATICO/HypeTrain Digital (https://store.steampowered.com/app/20...)

7:51 - I NEED SPACE - Khayalan Arts (https://store.steampowered.com/app/23...)

9:18 - Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo - Galla Games/Fellow Traveler (https://store.steampowered.com/app/22...)

10:12 - Shinehill - Peach Bite (https://store.steampowered.com/app/18...)

11:09 - Paper Perjury - Paper Cat Games (https://store.steampowered.com/app/19...)

12:35 - Fishbowl - imissmyfriends.studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/16...)

14:10 - Button City: Soccer Days - Subliminal (https://store.steampowered.com/app/24...)

15:10 - Fall Up - Unicellular Games/Astrolabe Games (https://store.steampowered.com/app/18...)

16:01 - Space Boat - Recombobulator Games (https://store.steampowered.com/app/15...)

16:36 - The Palace on the Hill - Niku Games Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/25...)

18:00 - 1000 Deaths - Pariah Interactive (https://store.steampowered.com/app/11...)

18:49 - Street Shuffle - Slice of Pie Games/MassDiGi (https://store.steampowered.com/app/16...)

19:39 - Bit ESC - Essssam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/17...)

20:57 - Bahamut and the Waqwaq Tree - Starvania Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/25...)

22:12 - Sorry We’re Closed - à la mode games/Akupara Games (https://store.steampowered.com/app/17...)

24:12 - Sweave - Leti Arts (https://www.letiarts.com/sweave/)

25:28 - My Lovely Empress - Game Changer Studio/Neon Doctrine (https://store.steampowered.com/app/20...)

26:20 - Angeline Era - Analgesic Productions (https://store.steampowered.com/app/23...)

27:33 - The InBetween - VCD (https://store.steampowered.com/app/29...)

28:48 - The Posthumous Investigation - The Posthumous Investigation - Mother Gaia Studio (https://store.steampowered.com/app/24...)

29:33 - Bitter Silver - Lookout Drive Games (https://store.steampowered.com/app/19...)

30:36 - Ritual Night - Outfox Games (https://store.steampowered.com/app/18...)

32:20 - Gas Station Story - ENZI (https://store.steampowered.com/app/27...)

34:03 - Blood & Play - tofurocks (https://store.steampowered.com/app/29...)

35:03 - Momogatari - Sentori Studio & Vivien Rakotoniria (https://store.steampowered.com/app/23...)

35:30 - Midautumn - Team Midautumn (https://store.steampowered.com/app/15...)

36:27 - Boyband Hell - LittleMissLeeStories (https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...)

37:40 - Keylocker - Moonana/Serenity Forge (https://store.steampowered.com/app/13...)

[burlveneer-music]

My WVUD playlist and stream, 9/2/2024

Laurie Anderson - India And On Down to Australia (feat. ANOHNI) The Hardy Tree - All the Hours (radio edit) maya ongaku - Meiso Ongaku 1 Oliver Patrice Weder - Modern Times Krononaut - Silver Silver 英水帝江 (Ying Shui Di Jiang) - Torrents of Rain somethingmaker - Under Melaleucas Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman - Remain in Memory of Full Light Drum & Lace - Plus (feat. Patrick Shiroishi) Tycho & Cautious Clay - Infinite Health Jenova 7 - Deep Star Deception Laurent Bardainne & Tigre d'Eau Douce - Oiseau (feat. Bertrand Belin) Cindy Lee - Dracula Abecedarians - Soil Slowly Rolling Camera - Rebirth Emanative - Paradox Holy Tongue & Shackleton - The Merciful Lake Zaliva-D - Illusion WaqWaq Kingdom - Hado Bataille Solaire - Sauropodes et Acacias

Listen on Mixcloud

[harpgriffin]

Bahamut and the Waqwaq Tree Preview

This is a beautiful game that I found very accessible to play. This might not be true for everyone - ironically the highly skilled players in the Next Fext Conquest tournament struggled with it in ways I didn't, including drawing circles (a key mechanic of the game). My only issues was that my hardware absolutely could not handle the end of the demo, which is in deep darkness with an abundance of particle effects. There are generous check points and a good tutorial, and as I recall, you can switch to toggle buttons rather than hold.

[bestiarium]

The Ninmenju [Japanese folklore; yokai]

According to Toriyama Sekien (18th century), there are strange trees with blossoms that closely resemble human heads. This unusual plant is called the Ninmenju (which translates to ‘human-face tree’) and although the blossoms have faces, they are incapable of speech. They do, however, laugh ceaselessly. At one point, when a face has laughed enough, it falls to the ground like a common fruit.

Before Sekien, this strange tree was also described in the Wakan Sansai Zue (1712). Apparently, the Ninmenju can be found in the Arab region, and specifically it grows in canyons. It is theorized that this yokai might have been inspired by (or might be a direct reference to) the similar ‘Waqwaq tree’ from the Thousand and One Nights, which is a magical tree that grows human children as if they were fruit. Another such plant appears in the ancient Chinese story ‘Journey to the West’: in this tale, a tree grew strange fruit that resembled human infants. Eating this fruit would greatly extend one’s lifespan, but the fruit is extremely rare since it only grows once every 9000 years.

I wonder if the Pokémon Exeggutor was inspired by the Ninmenju tree.

Source: Yoda, H. and Alt, M., 2016,  Japandemonium Illustrated: the Yokai Encyclopedias of Toriyama sekien. This work is a translation of the Gazu Hyakki Yagyo by Toriyama Sekien in the 18th century. (image source: unknown, sorry. I couldn’t find the artist)

[hinducosmos]

A Scene in a Fantastic Garden Late 18th century India. Opaque watercolour on paper. © The Trustees of the British Museum (via British Museum) In this intriguing painting, two nude men walk through a field picking flowering plants with human heads. Personifications of the sun and moon appear among the dark clouds above them. The premise context of this scene remains uniknown and it may have originated from an ancient Indian folktale, now lost. On the other hand, perhaps the artist intended to illustrate a variation on an episode from an ancient Middle Eastern tale featuring the Waqwaq tree. According to one account, the Waqwaq tree grows in a faraway land a bears fruit with human faces. This theme was also taken up in a medieval Persian story in which the ripened fruit of a magical tree fell to the ground and matured into man's heads.

[panoptik]

The Waqwaq Tree by Unknown Deccan School, Golconda India, early 17th century

al-Wakwak hakkında wiki 

[lnnovations]

@ anon idk if you saw the ask before i deleted it bc it was making my phone crash from my god damn essay but! 1. its sophies fault

2. a lot of yokai stories are adapted from chinese stories (ex. ubume), ainu stories (ex. atsuikakura), indian mythology (ex. tengu),  and even from the middle east (jinmenju, as an example, who could've come from from the waqwaq tree in a thousand and one nights when it was translated from persian to chinese, then referenced in the story 'journey to the west' where sun wukong finds a tree with fruit from human heads). and a lot just happen n are made up n develop over time as a response to misfortunes happening.

then i spiraled into talking about how the negative reputation of tengu is the way it in jp buddhist communities despite the hindu god that prototyped them, garuda/kurara, being a positive figure is bc of xenophobia which Did Exist in heian but got amped up 1868 due to meijis need to 'purify' japan and soured their reputation further until shintos adopted tengu as minor gods after the persecution of buddhists n shugendo due to tengus resemblance to the shinto earth god, surutahiko okami

[loumargi]

The Waqwaq Tree by Unknown Deccan School, Golconda India, early 17th century

[uncheckedtomfoolery]

Some youkai for your consideration

I’ve often thought it’s a bit of a shame that the legions of Touhou OCs out there seem to limit themselves to shrine maidens, outsiders, the occasional god and ‘actually Remilia has another sister’, when there’s such an enormous wealth of as yet unused legends to pick from. While it’s somewhat off-brand for me, I’ve decided to actually try and change this rather than just sit and complain.

Below the cut, you’ll find a bunch of youkai with a mix of descriptions and suggestions plus, where possible, a link to Wiki or another resource. Anyone who doesn’t care for Touhou might still find some interesting/bizarre folklore (but I repeat myself).

Gashadokuro: Starting strong with a gigantic skeleton. Or, depending on the legend, a swarm and/or gestalt of skeletons. The latter is more accurate, but a popular painting depicted on the wiki page has more or less overwritten the popular perception. The Gashadokuro is said to be invulnerable and invisible, though you can hear it (a ringing sound, surprisingly, and not its footsteps); you can probably also tell it’s around if you’re not completely blind. Being formed from the unburied bodies of those either starved or killed in war, it’s mostly grumpy and hungry, and stalks around biting heads off random people to drink the blood, like a really gory and inefficient vampire. You can probably do some kind of ribcage-coat-and-skull-hat deal if you don’t want to outright go with a skeleton, series aesthetic being what it is. A bamboo eyepatch might be a fun nod to the myth often conflated with it, too (as noted on the Wiki page). 

Namahage: Approximately Japanese Krampus with a ridiculously strong northern Japanese accent. They go from house to house brandishing buckets (why? Not a clue) and giant knives or outright machetes, yelling at kids and generally scaring them into behaving. At the request of parents (who give them gifts of mochi), they might throw in a special lesson as well. Then they stomp off to wherever they came from. Originally this was a ‘be good, or...’ kind of myth where the community played into it, but hey, youkai potential. Probably playing the exact same role, which could be funny.

Azukitogi: An old favourite just for being profoundly weird and irrelevant. The Azukitogi is an old man (according to some sources; I’ve always heard the stories casting it as an old woman) who washes their azuki in a river, musing on whether they should keep at it or go eat someone. The latter, to my knowledge, never actually happens, so it’s just a morbid youkai talking to themselves. If you get close, depending on the telling, you will drop into the river. That’s it. It’s just an ugly humanoid youkai sitting around washing beans in the middle of the night, muttering. I feel like it captures the ‘some of them are just kind of there’ spirit of youkai perfectly.

Heikegani: Reaching into animal youkai here, sort of; some do theorise that it’s a kind of haunting. You see, Heikegani have shells that look a bit like scowling samurai masks, and as such, were believed to be the reincarnated souls of Heike clan warriors who died at sea in the sea battle of Dan-no-Ura. Combine that with the whole animal youkai thing and you can easily wrangle up... oh, an extraordinarily (if misleadingly) grumpy-looking, 24/7 armour-wearing crab youkai who has way too many swords. Optionally a ghost. ...What, you don’t think they really look like that? Here you go, then.

Chochin-Obake: Okay, I won’t pretend this is especially innovative. It’s low-hanging fruit, and it’s simple: The archetypical lantern tsukumogami. As such it’s kind of astonishing that I haven’t seen this done more, though?

Todomeki: Literally the ‘demon with hundreds of eyes’, the Todomeki is a towering humanoid woman with countless bird eyes covering her ridiculously long arms. The eyes are, according to several brands of moon logic living in happy coexistence, a symbolic punishment for stealing. No theft occurs in the stories of the Todomeki, and she has a lot of weird powers from somewhere, so this is... weird. Her stories feature her scaring people in a horse graveyard (I did not know this was a thing) for no apparent reason, spouting fire and breathing poison gas, then coming back a long time later to collect the blood and poison gas that she lost so she can recover. I want to further note there was a 400 year delay in between the horse graveyard fight and ‘oh yeah I should go back for my blood and nerve gas’. Possibly for Touhou this gets toned down to a suspicious mess of stolen goods, and eye patterns all over the sleeves of her dress.

Nurikabe: Another in the ‘some Youkai just exist’ brand, the Nurikabe is a living wall of indeterminate origin (depictions make it look kind of dog-like for some reason?) that extends forever. If you knock on it politely, it disappears. Theories on how the myth came about, on the other hand, tend to be either explaining lost travelers... or dietary changes in the lower classes during the Edo period, which led to an outbreak of fatigue and night-blindness. You’d stagger home in the evening, hit a wall you can barely see, and feel like it goes on forever because you’re so tired. Of note, also, is the popular (in Japan, anyhow) Gegege no Kitaro adaptation. Imagine someone buying a figure of this. I don’t understand. To wrap up, the Nurikabe’s motivation is purely to mess with people, as far as anyone can tell. Some theories attribute it to tanuki instead. Oh, and a mountain variety growing out of the mountainside, the Nuribo, also exists.

Ittan-Momen (or here, but there’s not much to be found anywhere): This one provides an interesting counterpoint as an entirely hostile tsukumogami. It’s a roll of cotton that flies on the wind, native to Kagoshima, and either sneaks into houses or bears down on travelers in the middle of the night, wrapping around their face and suffocating them out of sheer spite. It is quite possibly the world’s most hostile blanket, or the ultimate evolution of the sheet ghost.

Inugami (WARNING: Gross and terrible things happen to dogs in the wiki text; do not click if this will upset you greatly): As much a brand of ritual as a creature, the Inugami is the result of one of multiple processes in southern Japan’s distant past that would result in the creation of a vaguely canine spirit. The spirit (described as variations on the theme of a tiny black and white floating thing with a dog’s head) will possess your enemies, bring them to ruin, bring you prosperity, or whatever depending on the telling. It will also haunt your family for generations, so this is kind of a Faustian deal. On the other hand, it has reasons for being angry.

Oboroguruma: A literal monster truck An oxcart, translucent and ghostly, with a giant face on the front. It rattles up to your doorway and makes squeaking noises until you step out and see the cart there, whereupon it appears to do nothing in particular. Youkai. It’s some pretty striking imagery though, which is no surprise since, as the link elaborates, the art came before a story. According to the after-the-fact backstory, it uh, feeds on the petty grumbling of spoiled aristocrats, which seems fairly harmless? Ghost taxi.

Kamaitachi: Another high-profile, if minor youkai. This one has... a thousand origin stories and variations depending on where you go in Japan. I’ll let you hit the link yourself. The core of it is an etymological corruption turned pun. A weasel with sickles for arms, taking the form of a dust devil, whirlwind or just a gale, with the weasel either at the heart of it or invisible outright. The wind cuts people; thus the term Kamaitachi is actually used to this day to refer to any sort of strong wind that feels like it’s cutting/biting into you. I’m going to toss in an excellent drawing by @moominpappa also. Here it is.

Basan: A giant chicken that lives in forests and breathes fire, which as a combination strikes me as a non-survival trait, but what do I know? It... makes bird noises outside but disappears when humans look at it, which strikes me as extremely convenient. I mention it solely because- I mean, click the link. It looks utterly ridiculous. I love it.

Kodama: Alternatively Kotodama, literally ‘tree soul’ or ‘tree spirit’. They’re the spirit of any sacred or spiritually significant tree, a Shinto god of the small-g variety (that is to say, welcome to animism, where everything is a god but not necessarily a high-profile one). You know those little black and white guys from Princess Mononoke? Yeah, those are the ones. They’re basically minor guardian spirits for their tree, and the reason you’ll see trees ringed with braided rope and paper tassels all around Japan. When it’s depicted as anything other than the actual tree, Kodama tend to be pretty small. They’re benevolent unless, of course, you try to cut the tree down, at which point you will pay dearly (but more in the ‘curse your house for seven generations’ sense than ‘whoops, tree ate you’).

Jinmenju (or Ninmenju): The Jinmenju is possibly an extremely displaced Arabic legend about the Waqwaq Tree. It apparently serves no real purpose except to really creep people out, and even that, only by accident. The Jinmenju has fruit shaped like human heads complete with a face (ditto the seeds within), which smiles constantly. If you laugh at it, it will laugh back at you, but laughing too hard will make the fruit fall off. You can eat them, and the tree will not object, nor the fruit. It’s said to be sweet and sour, which carries the horrible implication that someone thought this was a good idea. According to Mizuki Shigeru, there are stories of people who (for some godforsaken reason) planted orchards of these things. They’re mostly found in the south, which probably deserves it for the whole inugami business. Design-wise, you might tone this down by giving the character a green or brown robe with smiling faces drawn all over it (or cut out, Hata no Kokoro-style), and a wooden mask over their actual face (if one exists). Optionally, combine it with the previous youkai so there’s a kodama perched on her shoulder.

That’s about it for now, but I do want to point out that if you want to look further, Yokai.com is a pretty good resource and frequently a more comprehensive one than Wikipedia. Have fun making incredibly weird youkai.

[neurotic-nereid]

“Because of his love for the rods in the trousers, Ibn Zaydun, In spite of his excellence, If he would see a penis in a palm tree, He would turn into a woodpecker.”

— a poem written by wallada bin Al-Mustakfi after ibn zaydun referred to her as a crust.(this fueled the fire to the rumour of his preferance to his own sex).

[ The “penis in a palm tree” is less random than it might seem. A popular book at the time in Córdoba was Ibn Sina’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan, which contained a description of the popular sailors fantasy of the magical Island of al-Waqwaq. On this misogynistic utopia, naked women grew on trees like fruit and could be cut down by sailors who could then have sex with them. The island was named for the cries of these unfortunate women-fruits who could only exclaim “waqwaq” (the Persian for “help”) before they died. Wallada’s commandeering of this dehumanizing image of consumable femininity is counterpointed by her deliberately depriving Ibn Zaydun of his humanity, by turning him into a woodpecker. ]

[brassmanticore]

Two nude men harvest human heads from plants

Mughal, late 18th century

In this intriguing painting, two nude men walk through a field picking flowering plants with human heads. Personifications of the sun and moon appear among the dark clouds above them. The context of this scene is unknown; it may have originated from an ancient Indian folktale, now lost.

On the other hand, perhaps the artist intended to illustrate a variation on an ancient Middle Eastern tale featuring the Waqwaq tree. According to one account, the Waqwaq tree grows in a faraway land and bears fruit with human faces. This theme was also taken up in a medieval Persian story in which the ripened fruit of a magical tree fell to the ground and matured into men’s heads.

In the British Museum

[eyeburfi2]

Eskandar (Alexander the Great) contemplates the Talking Tree, Illustration for Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Shiraz, c.1430

Commissioned by Ebrahim Soltan, Timur's grandson. Illuminator: Nasr al-Soltani. Opaque watercolours, ink and gold on paper

Source: The Fitzwilliam Museum

[eyeburfi2]

The Waqwaq Tree Deccan School, Golconda, India. Early 17th century

In the Islamic world, there is a legend about a fabulous tree on the island of Waq Waq, which has fruit in the form of human figures, or heads that talk and make prophesies. Alexander the Great is said to have encountered one such talking tree with human fruit.

(Source)