Rokurokubi

Rokurokubi are demon women with long serpentine necks. (Note: this statue may be a male Rokurokubi, though I believe they are not as common as female Rokurokubi) The film "Ugetsu Monogatari", depicts one story in which a housewife shape shifts into a Rokurokubi after she prepares the fish her husband caught earlier in the evening. Harming other living creatures is considered a violation of the five precepts of Buddhism: no killing, no stealing, no adultery, no lying, and no drinking, and is therefore punishable by immediate Karmic retribution. Thus the wife was turned into a Rokurokubi for preparing this fish, and the husband who caught it was killed by her demon form.