A-Yokai-A-Day: Rokurokubi

Not all yokai are born that way — some are ordinary humans transformed into yokai through some magic or other. Today’s yokai is one such cursed human: Rokurokubi. Her name means “pulley neck” and it comes from the fact that her neck is infinitely stretchable, allowing her head to fly about from her body. It’s said this ability only happens at night, and in fact, some rokurokubi are totally unaware of this ability, and their head roams around while they sleep, occasionally licking up lamp oil, or drinking other peoples’ blood, even (rarely) eating humans. Upon waking up, rokurokubi are said to remember strange dreams about what their heads went about doing in the night. This is another one of my favorite yokai. Enjoy!

Rokurokubi

Rokurokubi

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  1. Pingback: A-Yokai-A-Day: Makura-gaeshi | MatthewMeyer.net

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