Renee the Rokurokubi

Greetings, fellow deviants. I hope that you're all well. Sorry for not being on that much. School has been kickin' my butt something fierce. Trying to actually find the time to draw is proving to be more and more difficult, especially as the semester starts to drag. However, that's not what I want to talk about. I have a special announcement.

With October being the month of monthly challenges, such as Inktober, Goretober, etc., I decided to throw my hat into the ring with another monthly challenge: Yokaitober! Throughout this month, I'll make a drawing of a particular demon from Japanese mythology every day! In addition, I'll talk about the demon itself, its background and a few of the legends surrounding it.

On that note, let's start with the rokurokubi, or as it's translated, "pulley neck". As you could easily tell from the lady's appearance above, she's shown as a regular woman, though she has a rather long neck. Appearing normal during the day, their bodies change drastically at night, as their bodies sleep and their necks stretch as long as a garden hose. In this form, they're capable of acting in bizarre ways, ranging from attacking small animals with their heads to licking up lamp oil with their tongue.

Rokurokubi started out as regular humans, though were transformed by a curse caused from some sort of misdeed. Maybe they sinned against the god, or they were unfaithful. Maybe they ended up being cursed, even though their fathers or husbands did the deed and passed the blame to them. Rokurokubi are always portrayed as female, though in some cases, it's not their fault.

One particular legend of the yokai comes to mind. A lord discovered the oil in his lamps kept vanishing, and thought one of his servant girls was a rokurokubi. He spied on the girl to find out. When she fell asleep one night, he snuck into her room and watched over her. Soon, vapors and ectoplasm formed from her chest and neck, and when she turned over in her sleep, only her body moved! Her head stayed in place, with her neck stretching out. Sure enough, she was fired the next day, and ended up being fired from every job she worked afterwards. She never realized why she kept getting fired, and also never knew about her curse of being a rokurokubi.

What interests me about the rokurokubi is the idea behind it. While just having a super-long neck might not seem as impressive as, say, being a amphibian-like creature that hides underwater, it shows that even humans are not safe from becoming something like this. I also feel kind of bad for the women who got cursed to be like this, and definitely for the woman in the legend. In some cases, they were in the right, and ended up getting the short end of the stick because for some other party. I wouldn't know what having a neck like that would feel like. Just imagine the amount of scarves you'd have to wear to stay cool.

Now, for Renee. Renee herself is a bit of a sassy madam, having a sense of "I don't have time for your tomfoolery". She's a fan of reading romance novels, improving herself and working hard as a fashion designer for demons. While many people make fun of her for her curse, she ignores it, and later accepts it as being more for her to love and improve. She's made quite a number of silk scarves, and has made a following that may be small, but is steadily growing.

1 down, 30 to go. Hope you guys enjoy the first edition of Yokai-tober! There's plenty more where that came from...assuming that school doesn't kill me in the process. Hope you guys have a fantastic night, be safe, and take care!