Kubi-Kajiri (首かじり Kubikajiri, lit. Head Biter) is a yōkai that eats severed heads.
Appearance[]
In the 2007 anime, Kubi-Kajiri takes the form of an ugly, emaciated, pale, old man with long, light gray hair, big angry eyes, pointy ears, a mouth with sharp, dark gray teeth, and a wisp-like lower half covered in a light gray cloth.
Personality[]
In the 2007 anime, Kubi-Kajiri acts like a feral animal acting on instinct when he’s chasing Yobuko to eat his head.
History[]
Yuki-Hime-chan and GeGeGe no Kitarō[]
In the story Kitsune-Tsuki, Kubi-Kajiri's likeness is used for the old man corpse Kitsune-Tsuki has possessed when Nezumi-Otoko comes across him in a cemetery. Nezumi-Otoko had in fact heard of a ghost eating fish heads in the cemetery and assumed it was Kubi-Kajiri.
2007 Anime[]
In Episode 79, Kubi-Kajiri was seen chasing Yobuko in the forest until Aobōzu saved him from the head eating yokai by placing a seal on his head causing the yokai to faint and defeated[1]
2018 Anime[]
Powers and Abilities[]
Levitation: Kubi-Kajiri is shown to be able to float above the ground.
Legend[]
Illustration of Kubi-Kajiri by Shigeru Mizuki.
When a person does not give food to a starving old man or a traveler who's starving to death, the spirit of the starving person becomes a Kubi-Kajiri. When the person who did not give food dies, this spirit appears at the grave and digs up the head to eat it. It is also said that a Kubi-Kajiri is the spirit of those who have been deprived of food, so they dig up graves and devour the heads of those who died.
Mizuki adds that back in the past, most people buried the dead, so if an animal like a dog or cat dug out a head of a dead body and eat it, it would most likely be attributed to a monster like a Kubi-Kajiri.
This yōkai first appeared in the Bessatsu Shoujo Friend magazine by Morihiro Saitō, with its appearance derived from Ippitsusai Buncho's "A Ghost with a Man's Severed Head in its Mouth" painting.
References[]
- ↑ Gegege no Kitaro (2007): Episode 79