Hokushōほくしょう

Rokurokubi is a humanlike apparition that may have a neck stretching far while still joined to the body or a head that separates completely and flies. Its name appears in seventeenth-century haikai and ghost stories, but its form and character vary greatly by period and source: stories that feel like dreams to the sleeper, accounts explained through karma or curses, images linking head and body with a fine line, and the detached-head form depicted by Lafcadio Hearn. It is comparable to Chinese Luotou people and flying-head traditions, but cannot be explained through one direct origin alone.