~Urban legends of Japan~

Rokurokubi

Rokurokubi (ろくろ首, 轆轤首) is a type of Japanese yōkai (apparition). They look almost completely like humans with some differences. There is a type whose neck stretches and another whose head detaches and flies around freely (nukekubi). The Rokurokubi appear in classical kaidan (spirit tales) and in yōkai works.

The word rokurokubi may have derived from the word rokuro which refers to a potter's wheel, a water well's pulley (since it elongates) or an umbrella handle (which also elongates).

The nukekubi are rokurokubi whose heads come off and float about. These were the last of the rokurokubi whereas the other kind came before. Nukekubi sometimes perform bad deeds such as attacking at night and drinking their victims' blood. It is theorized that the nukekubi has a weakness when it is sleeping and the head is floating around: if the body moves, then the head cannot be re-united to the body. Classical literature about rokurokubi describes tales of people witnessing and encountering floating heads at night time.

Sometimes, the action of the head separating from the body is seen as the soul wandering away from the body, i.e. somnambulism. For example, in the Sorori Monogatari (曾呂利物語, 1663 CE), in the chapter A Woman's Wild Thoughts Wandering Around (女の妄念迷ひ歩く事, Onna no Mōnen Mayoiaruku Koto) the head separating from the body interpreted to be the woman's soul wandering while asleep. In the same book, a man saw a nukekubi that changed into a chick and a woman's head, so he took his sword and chased the head. The head fled into a home and people said that they heard a voice from inside say, "I had a scary dream. I was chased by a man with a sword. I ran away all the way back home and then I woke up."[6] (refer to picture).

A different story appears in Shokoku Hyaku Monogatari (諸国百物語, 1677 CE) which drew a lot of inspiration from the Sorori Monogatari. In About Rokurokubi in the Province of Echizen (ゑちぜんの国府中ろくろ首の事, Echizen no Kuni Fuchū Rokurokubi no Koto), there is a story of a man who chases a nukekubi (who was a woman's soul detached from her body) all the way home. It is said that the woman had been shamed by a crime she has committed, so as a result, she left her husband, shaved her hair, and committed suicide.

Hokusō Sadan (北窻瑣談, 1910 CE) is an Edo period essay by Tachibana Nankei (橘春暉). Here too, it was interpreted to be an illness resulting in a detaching soul. The story goes: in the first year of Kansei, in Echigo Province (now Fukui Prefecture), there was a house maidservant whose head rolled off the pillow while she was asleep, detached from the body. Later in the story, it was explained that it was not really the head, but rather the soul making the appearance of a head.

Although rokurokubi and nukekubi are usually female, in Shousai Hikki (蕉斎筆記), an Edo period tale, there is a nukekubi that is male. A priest was sleeping in his temple when a head appeared and approached his chest. He grabs it and throws it away and it leaves. In the morning, the manservant asks to take leave and when asked why, the manservant asks, "did a head come visit last night?" The priest answered yes, the manservant then explained that "I have the nukekubi illness and I fear it will interfere with my work too much from now on." The manservant went away to his home in Shimōsa Province where this "illness" was thought to be common.

In the Kasshi Yawa (甲子夜話, c. 1821 CE) by Matsura Seizan is a story which tells of a woman in Hitachi Province who has a terminal illness. A peddler has told her husband that the liver of a white dog will cure her. The husband kills the pet dog and gives his wife the dog's liver as a medicant. The woman is cured but her next-born daughter is a rokurokobi. When the rokurokubi's head detached and flew in the air, the white dog appeared, bit the head and killed the rokurokobi.

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