Who Is The Woodcutter Host (Rokuro-kubi) / The Four Household Members (Rokuro-kubi) (Rokurokubi)?

A rokuro-kubi is a Japanese monster whose neck stretches long or whose head comes off its body and flies around. In "Rokuro-Kubi" from Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan, they are the kind whose heads leave their bodies and fly.

The woodcutter who gives Kwairyo lodging in the mountains of Kai, and the four men and women who live with him, are a family of rokuro-kubi. The master invites Kwairyo in, saying monsters haunt the mountains. At midnight the five heads come off and fly into the woods behind the house, eating insects and saying, "That priest is fat — he will make a good meal." If the body is moved, the head cannot return and soon dies, so the master's head attacks Kwairyo in a rage.

The story also mentions an old Chinese book's belief that a rokuro-kubi has red marks like writing on its neck. It ends with a later episode in which a robber returns the head to Kai, buries it, and has rites said for its soul.