The particular liking the Japanese have with monsters is quite old and in the Edo period it was one of the favorite subjects of painters, illustrators etc. --especially when it is hot, the Japanese believe that the chill that comes with fear, literally cools you. Here is one such illustration from Hokusai with main characters two ladies with bizarrely long necks (they are called rokurokubi/ろくろ首), a gentleman with three eyes trying glasses and another gentleman playing his samisen carefree. Incidentally, Hokusai and his contemporaries called these sketches "manga" (漫画) --the word took the meaning we know today during the Meiji period.
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).
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