Rokurokubi

Rokurokubi is an entity told of in two lineages: one whose neck stretches abnormally long, and one whose head leaves the body and flies through the night. In Edo kaidan and picture-books it appears in inns, pleasure quarters, and temples where the head stretches over a sleeping guest to lap at lamp oil, or detaches and floats about the room. Ihara Saikaku's Saikaku Shokoku-banashi (1685), scroll one "Mi wo Sutsuru Aburatsubo," and Jippensha Ikku's Rekkoku Kaidan Kikigaki-cho carry analogous tales, with Musashi (modern Tokyo), Kai, and Omi as common settings. Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyo (Anei 5, 1776) depicts "Rokurokubi" with elongating neck. Kyokutei Bakin's Shin Kasane Gedatsu Monogatari, kaidan around Ueda Akinari's Ugetsu Monogatari, and the Chinese Sou Shen Ji story of the "Falling-Head People of the South" attach to the detached-head ("Hitoban") tradition. The International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database arranges cases by region.