page_title: Susanoo-no-Mikoto
section_title: Slaying the Yamata no Orochi
hierarchical_section_title: Susanoo-no-Mikoto / Mythology / Slaying the Yamata no Orochi
caption_attribution_description: English: Gozu Tennô (=Susanoo) and Inada-hime, from the series Lives of Heroes of Our Country (Honchô eiyû den)
context_page_description: Susanoo is a kami in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory characteristics, being portrayed in various stories either as a wild, impetuous god associated with the sea and storms, as a heroic figure who killed a monstrous serpent, or as a local deity linked with the harvest and agriculture. Syncretic beliefs that arose after the introduction of Buddhism to Japan also saw Susanoo becoming conflated with deities of pestilence and disease.
  Susanoo, alongside Amaterasu and the earthly kami Ōkuninushi - who, depending on the source, is depicted as being either Susanoo's son or descendant - is one of the central deities of the imperial Japanese mythological cycle recorded in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. One of the gazetteer reports commissioned by the imperial court during the same period these texts were written, that of Izumo Province in western Japan, also contains a number of short legends concerning Susanoo or his children, suggesting a connection between the god and this region.
context_section_description: After his banishment, Susanoo came down from heaven to Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni (葦原中国, the 'Central Land of Reed Plains', i.e. the earthly land of Japan), to the land of Izumo, where he met an elderly couple named Ashinazuchi (足名椎 / 脚摩乳) and Tenazuchi (手名椎 / 手摩乳), who told him that seven of their eight daughters had been devoured by a monstrous serpent known as the Yamata no Orochi (八俣遠呂智 / 八岐大蛇, "eight-forked serpent") and it was nearing time for their eighth, Kushinadahime (櫛名田比売; also called Kushiinadahime, Inadahime, or Makami-Furu-Kushiinadahime in the Shoki). Sympathizing with their plight, Susanoo hid Kushinadahime by transforming her into a comb (kushi), which he placed in his hair. He then made the serpent drunk on strong sake and then killed it as it lay in a drunken stupor. From within the serpent's tail Susanoo discovered the sword Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (天叢雲剣, "Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven") or the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (草薙剣 "Grass-Cutting Sword"), which he then presented to Amaterasu as a reconciliatory gift.
  [Susanoo-no-Mikoto] said to Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi-no-Kami:
  "Distill thick wine of eight-fold brewings; build a fence, and make eight doors in the fence. At each door, tie together eight platforms, and on each of these platforms place a wine barrel. Fill each barrel with the thick wine of eight-fold brewings, and wait."
  
  They made the preparations as he had instructed, and as they waited, the eight-tailed dragon came indeed, as [the old man] had said.
  
  Putting one head into each of the barrels, he drank the wine; then, becoming drunk, he lay down and slept.
  
  Then Haya-Susanoo-no-Mikoto unsheathed the sword ten hands long which he was wearing at his side, and hacked the dragon to pieces, so that the Hi river ran with blood.
  
  When he cut [the dragon's] middle tail, the blade of his sword broke. Thinking this strange, he thrust deeper with the stub of his sword, until a great sharp sword appeared.
  
  He took this sword out and, thinking it an extraordinary thing, reported [the matter] and presented [the sword] to Amaterasu-Ōmikami.
  
  This is the sword Kusa-nagi.
  Amaterasu later bequeathed the sword to Ninigi, her grandson by Ame-no-Oshihomimi, along with the mirror Yata no Kagami and the jewel Yasakani no Magatama. This sacred sword, mirror and jewel collectively became the three Imperial Regalia of Japan.
  While most accounts place Susanoo's descent in the headwaters of the river Hi in Izumo (肥河 / 簸之川, Hi-no-Kawa, identified with the Hii River in modern Shimane Prefecture), with the Kojiki specifying the area to be a place called Torikami (鳥髮, identified with Mount Sentsū in eastern Shimane), one variant in the Shoki instead has Susanoo descend to the upper reaches of the river E (可愛之川 E-no-kawa) in the province of Aki (identified with the Gōnokawa River in modern Hiroshima Prefecture). Kushinadahime's parents are here given the names Ashinazu-Tenazu (脚摩手摩) and Inada-no-Miyanushi-Susa-no-Yatsumimi (稲田宮主簀狭之八箇耳); here, Kushinadahime is not yet born when Susanoo slew the Yamata no Orochi.
  The ten-span sword Susanoo used to slay the Yamata no Orochi, unnamed in the Kojiki and the Shoki's main text, is variously named in the Shoki's variants as Orochi-no-Aramasa (蛇之麁正 'Rough [and] True [Blade] of the Serpent'), Orochi-no-Karasabi-no-Tsurugi (蛇韓鋤之剣 'Korean (Kara) Sword of the Serpent' or 'Flashing Sword of the Serpent'), and Ame-no-Haekiri-no-Tsurugi (天蝿斫剣 'Heavenly Fly Cutter', also Ame-no-Hahakiri 'Heavenly Serpent (haha) Cutter'). In the Kogo Shūi it is dubbed Ame-no-Habakiri (天羽々斬, also Ame-no-Hahakiri). This sword is said to have been originally enshrined in Isonokami Futsumitama Shrine in Bizen Province (modern Okayama Prefecture) before it was transferred to Isonokami Shrine in Yamato Province (modern Nara Prefecture).
caption: Susanoo kills the Yamata no Orochi (Utagawa Kuniteru)
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2005:05:04 16:06:01", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9173", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1159", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600"}