Maikubi (Kanagawa)

Maikubi ("dancing heads") is a sea entity said to appear off Misaki in Kanagawa and the Manazuru coast of Izu, where three severed heads dance and flare with flame above the waves. The Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (Tenpo 12, 1841), with text by Momoyama Jin and pictures by Takehara Shunsen, records: in the Kamakura period three warriors quarreled at Manazuru, cut one another down and lost their heads into the sea; thereafter three heads were seen burning and biting one another above the waves. Sailors and coastal residents recorded the sight, and Maikubi became a representative case of Sagami Bay sea entities. Modern folklorists discussed it in their work on sea entities, and Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) treats it as a discrete entry. The International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database also records it; among severed-head sea entities, Maikubi is identified by the number three and the back-story of warriors locked in mutual hatred.