Tsurube-otoshi

According to the oral legend about Kuchitanba (the southern part of the Tanba region of Kyoto Prefecture) recorded in the Taishō period local research documentation book, the "Kuchitanba Kōhi Shū" (口丹波口碑集, "Collection of Oral Legends about Kuchitanba"), it is said that in the Hōki section of the village of Sogabe in Kyoto Prefecture (now Kameoka), a tsurube-oroshi would suddenly drop down from a kaya tree and make a sniggering laugh saying "has your night work ended, how 'bout let's drop a bucket, gii-gii" ("yagyō sunda ka, tsurube oroso ka, gii-gii") and then rise up above the tree again.

Also, in the village of Tomimoto, Funai District, Kyoto (now Nantan), an eerie tree wrapped with ivy was feared for the appearance of tsurube-oroshi from there.

[4] In the Edo Period collection of kaidan (mysterious tales), the Kokon Hyakumonogatari Hyōban, they are depicted under the name of "tsurube-oroshi" (釣瓶おろし) as a yōkai that is a spirit of a large tree that has turned into flames that rain down.

[5] In Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō, the ball of fire "tsurube-oroshi" of the Kokon Hyakumonogatari Hyōban would appear under the name of tsurubebi.

As a result of this, from the Shōwa and Heisei periods onwards, tsurube-oroshi are stated in yōkai-related literature to be severed heads or buckets that would drop, whereas the tsurubebi on the other hand would be atmospheric ghost lights that would hang from trees and thus they would be almost always be considered different kinds of yōkai, but there is also the theory that originally both the tsurube-otoshi and the tsurubebi were similarly atmospheric ghost lights that dangle from trees like buckets.