This time, I write briefly about the provenance and transmission of the folktales and legends we know so well, and how I believe that the great age and broad distribution of the stories obligates us to treat the old stories with the greatest respect.
According to #Japanese folklore, the Jubokko¹ is a tree, but also a yōkai, a magical creature.
When cut, a red liquid flows out from the trunk.
Legend says that the tree appears near battlefields, so the roots are sustained by the corpses nearby, and so it is actual blood that rushes below the bark.
Curiously, on Shizeru Mizuki's² "Yōkai Encyclopedia", I found that, along with blood, tiny beings with long, white hair, very similar to elder people, came out from a cut in the tree.
Read the recap of the story in the comment ⬇️