The etymological meaning of _Rokuro-Kubi_ can scarcely be indicated
by any English rendering. The term _rokuro_ is indifferently used to
designate many revolving objects--objects as dissimilar as a pulley,
a capstan, a windlass, a turning lathe, and a potter's wheel. Such
renderings of Rokuro-Kubi as "Whirling-Neck" and "Rotating-Neck" are
unsatisfactory;--for the idea which the term suggests to Japanese
fancy is that of a neck which revolves, _and lengthens or retracts
according to the direction of the revolution_.... As for the ghostly
meaning of the expression, a Rokuro-Kubi is either (1) a person whose
neck lengthens prodigiously during sleep, so that the head can wander
about in all directions, seeking what it may devour, or (2) a person
able to detach his or her head completely from the body, and to rejoin
it to the neck afterwards. (About this last mentioned variety of
_Rokuro-Kubi_ there is a curious story in my "Kwaidan," translated
from the Japanese.) In Chinese mythology the being whose neck is so
constructed as to allow of the head being completely detached belongs
to a special class; but in Japanese folk-tale this distinction is not
always maintained. One of the bad habits attributed to the Rokuro-Kubi
is that of drinking the oil in night-lamps. In Japanese pictures the
Rokuro-Kubi is usually depicted as a woman; and old books tell us
that a woman might become a Rokuro-Kubi without knowing it,--much as
a somnambulist walks about while asleep, without being aware of the
fact.... The following verses about the Rokuro-Kubi have been selected
from a group of twenty in the _Ky[=o]ka Hyaku-Monogatari_:--
Nemidaré no
Nagaki kami woba
Furi-wakété,
Chi hiro ni nobasu
Rokuro-Kubi kana!
[_Oh!... Shaking loose her long hair disheveled by sleep, the
Rokuro-Kubi stretches her neck to the length of a thousand
fathoms!_]
"Atama naki
Bakémono nari"--to
Rokuro-Kubi,
Mité odorokan
Onoga karada we.
[_Will not the Rokuro-Kubi, viewing with_ _astonishment her
own body (left behind) cry out, "Oh, what a headless goblin
have you become!_"]
Tsuka-no-ma ni
Hari we tsutawaru,
Rokuro-Kubi
Kéta-kéta warau--
Kao no kowasa yo!
[_Swiftly gliding along the roof-beam (and among the props
of the roof), the Rokuro-Kubi laughs with the sound of
"kéta-kéta"--oh! the fearfulness of her face!_[34]]
[Footnote 34: It is not possible to render all the double meanings in
this composition. _Tsuka-no-ma_ signifies "in a moment" or "quickly";
but it may also mean "in the space [_ma_] between the roof-props"
[_tsuka_]. "_Kéta_" means a cross-beam, but _kéta-kéta warau_ means to
chuckle or laugh in a mocking way. Ghosts are said to laugh with the
sound of kéta-kéta.]
Roku shaku no
By[=o]bu ni nobiru
Rokuro-Kubi
Mité wa, go shaku no
Mi wo chijimi-kéri!
[_Beholding the Rokuro-Kubi rise up above the six-foot screen,
any five-foot person would have become shortened by fear (or,
"the stature of any person five feet high would have been
diminished")._[35]]
[Footnote 35: The ordinary height of a full screen is six Japanese
feet.]