Rokurokubi
A rokurokubi ( Japanese. 轆轤 首 ; to dt. "Turning and turning neck") is a fictional being of the Japanese folk belief, which belongs to the group of the higher Yōkai . He is very often confused with the Nukekubi, which is similar to him .
description
Rokurokubi are supposed to look like ordinary people during the day. They prefer to pose as attractive women so as not to attract attention in the crowd. At night, your body goes to rest, while your head begins to lead a life of its own: your neck should stretch unnaturally long during the night. The head eventually snakes through the house and licks the oil from the lamps or sucks the blood or life energy out of human residents. Some rokurokubi are said to have fun laying their heads on window sills or mantelpiece and frightening passers-by.
The Legend of Rokurokubi caused by a curse or unfortunately, usually scorned love. In fact, in most lore, it is women who are either killed by their husbands or are accidentally separated from their loved ones. Or their love was never heard during their lifetime.
folklore
A well-known tradition can be found in the book Yaso Kidan by Kosai Ishikawa from 1889. There is a legend about a young woman from Hongōku (today's Bunkyōku ) who lived during the Hōreki period (1751–1764). She is said to have been so beautiful that men, young and old, turned ecstatically towards her. However, jealous tongues said she was actually a rokurokubi. In fact, she is said to have been a rokurokubi whose head went in search of love-mad men at night.
background
The exact etymology of the name Rokurokubi is not known. It is very likely that the first partial word, rokuro , goes back to the Japanese 轆轤 , which actually means “ potter's wheel ”, but can also mean “to turn” or “to turn around”. The Japanese scientist and traveler Lafcadio Hearn already pointed out the many possible interpretations. The second partial word in the name of the Yōkai, kubi , simply means "neck", "neck" and / or (less often) "neck".
The background of the belief in rokurokubi and nukekubi is very likely the phenomenon of sleepwalking . People who get out of bed in the middle of the night, soundly asleep and in a trance like normal people, and do everyday activities, led superstitious people to assume that the person concerned is possessed or in fact a disguised yōkai .
Legends about alleged encounters with Nukekubi and Rokurokubi are passed down from an early age and are still popular today. Lafcadio Hearn already collected legends and sagas about Nukekubi and Rokurokubi around 1950. Hearn already pointed out how difficult it was to separate the two beings cleanly from one another. Modern scholars, on the other hand, draw attention to descriptions in Hearn's reports, which suggest that Lafcadio Hearn reports from Nukekubi rather than Rokurokubi.
literature
- Michaela Haustein: Mythologies of the World: Volume 1: Japan, Ainu, Korea . epubli-holtzbrinck, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 3-84421-407-0 , p. 41.
- Julie Nelson Davis: Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty. University of Hawaii Press, Michigan 2007, ISBN 0-82483-199-3 , p. 230.
- Roxanne Hellman, Derek Hall: Vampire Legends and Myths . The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011, ISBN 1448859867 , pp. 130-132.
Web links
- Description of a Rokurokubi (English)
- Lexicon of the Yōkai; Section "Rokurokubi" (Japanese)