Yamata-no-Orochi

Susanoo didn't really mind that he had been banished from heaven.  It was a kind of boring place, after all.  He lived there with a small group of gods, including his two siblings and his parents.  He had been banished by the rest of the gods for playing a cruel trick on his sister, Amaterasu. 

Shortly after Susanoo had descended to the land of Japan, he met with two land gods.  They were in great distress, and openly weeping.  These two land gods were a couple, the husband, Ashinadzuchi, and his wife, Tenadzuchi.  Susanoo quickly asked what the problem was, and they told him the story of the Yamata-no-Orochi.  The great eight-headed, eight-tailed dragon had been terrorizing them for seven years, insisting they give him one of their daughters each year.  This time, the Yamata-no-Orochi was insisting that they give him their eighth daughter, Princess Kushinada. 

Upon hearing this horrible story, Susanoo insisted on knowing more about the great beast.  The old man explained how the dragon had eight tails, eight heads and was so long that it stretched over eight valleys and hills.  Its body was so old that it was covered in mossy growth and even had trees growing upon it.  Furthermore, its eyes glowed such a deep red, that they put wild cherries to shame.

Susanoo knew the beast must be powerful but offered the old man a deal.  In exchange for slaying the beast, he would give his eighth daughter to Susanoo.  Before the old man could agree to do such a thing to his daughter, he insisted on knowing who Susanoo really was.  Susanoo responded, "I am Susanoo, brother of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, and I have just descended from heaven." 

The old man, despite being a land god himself, quickly made obeisance to Susanoo and offered him his daughter in exchange for slaying the Yamata-no-Orochi.  Susanoo knew that he had to protect Princess Kushinada in case the great dragon was able to survive his plan.  He then turned her into a comb, and placed her in his hair so that she would be hidden from Yamata-no-Orochi.

Susanoo was always a crafty sort, and knew that defeating the beast wouldn't be an easy task.  He bade the old couple to brew a large amount of sake, and to build a fence with eight entrances.  In each entrance there would be a place to hold the sake.  As the great serpent came to collect his prize, the Princess, he smelled the sake within the fence.  He quickly went to it and started drinking heavily from the vats of sake.

After the great dragon had become so drunk that he fell asleep, Susanoo took his divine sword and started chopping it into pieces: each of the eight heads, and each of the eight tales.  Shockingly, when he tried to cut up the serpent's fifth tail, his sword broke in half.  Susanoo knew something truly powerful must be hidden within the dragon, and started cutting around the area with his broken sword.  He found a blade so majestic and mythical that it was named Kusanagi-no-tachi, The Grasscutter Sword.  Knowing that this might smooth his relationship with his sister, Amaterasu the Sun Goddess, he sent the blade to her as a gift. 




Author's Note:  This story was fun to write.  It's very interesting because while the story is about the Yamata-no-Orochi, the main character is actually Susanoo.  It's a bit of a conflict with the concept of storytelling.  There were several aspects of the story that I completely ignored.  The first part is that it explains the trick that Susanoo played on his sister.  I left this out; I'm telling the story of Yamata-no-Orochi, not Susanoo.  For the same reason I also left out the part which tells how Susanoo and his new wife lived happily ever after and gave birth to several children.  Susanoo is both a trickster and actually a "dirty" hero, as one of the sources I read labeled him.  Some have even gone so far as to call him a villain instead of a hero.  However, this brings up the fine line that is difficult to see in Japanese mythology.  Demons and gods are essentially the same thing.  Both are spiritual beings of immense power.  Sometimes demons are shown as being blood thirsty, but there are many instances of benevolent demons.  In some instances, the gods are just considered immensely powerful demons.  Furthermore, many of the gods are often described as having two forms, a human form and an animal form, much like the demons.  To further complicate it, the human form isn't always the dominant.  An aspect of Japanese culture that I left out in the story is their use of suffixes for titles.  Princess Kushinada, for instance, in the original Japanese would be Kushinada-hime, with hime being the Japanese word for Princess.  The story of the Kusanagi is very important, as well.  It, along with two other items, the Yasakani-no-magatama jewel and the Yata-no-kagami mirror, are symbols of the Japanese Royal Family, bestowed on them by the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu.