The turban snails called sazae are one of many, many things that can be transformed into obake
by means of exceptional age. They in particular are said to change when they reach thirty years, growing
arms and legs and rising from the sea bottom on moonlit nights to dance in the waves.

The sazae-oni will also sometimes take human form, usually that of a beautiful and lecherous woman. One
comical and risqué story tells of how a pirate rescued a drowning woman from the sea and took her back to his
hideout, where the men fought over her attentions. She was willing to give herself to all of them, but then
one by one proceeded to remove their testicles. Such rude behavior soon found her tossed back into the ocean,
where she transformed into a monstrous shellfish. The pirate captain bartered with the sazae-oni for the
return of his and his mens' most prized possessions, and wound up parting with a large quantity of treasure.
Testicles are sometimes referred to as kin-tama or "golden balls" in Japanese, so the punchline goes that
"gold" was bought with gold.