Yamata no Orochi

Yamata no Orochi is the eight-headed, eight-tailed giant serpent of Japanese myth, slain by the storm god Susanoo after he got it drunk on strong sake, who found the sacred sword Kusanagi in its tail.

The Story

After being thrown out of heaven for his wild behavior, the storm god Susanoo came down to earth in Izumo, by the upper Hi River. He found an old couple, Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, weeping beside their daughter Kushinada-hime. They had once had eight daughters, but every year the serpent Yamata no Orochi came from Koshi and ate one. Now it was time for the last.

Susanoo offered to kill the serpent if he could marry the girl. He turned her into a comb and tucked it into his hair for safekeeping. Then he had the couple brew a very strong, eight-times-refined sake and build a fence with eight gates, with a platform and a vat of sake at each gate. The serpent arrived, dipped a head into each vat, drank, and fell asleep. Susanoo cut it to pieces, and the river ran red with its blood.

When his sword struck the middle tail, its edge chipped. Inside the tail he found a great sword, which he sent up to his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu. It became known as Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the "Grass-Cutting Sword," one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan.

Appearance and Powers

The Kojiki describes the serpent as having eight heads and eight tails, with eyes as red as ground cherries. Moss, cypress, and cedar grew on its body, it stretched across eight valleys and eight hills, and its belly was always bloody and inflamed. In early Japanese, "eight" can also mean "many," so the number may stress its enormous size. It has no special magic in the story. Its threat is size and appetite.

Origins and Meaning

The tale appears in both the Kojiki (712) and the Nihon Shoki (720), with small differences. Scholars have read the serpent as a symbol of the flooding Hi River and its many branches, and the iron sword in its tail as a memory of the iron-working centers of ancient Izumo. These are interpretations, not part of the myth itself.

Legacy

Orochi is still performed in Iwami kagura, a dramatic sacred dance in Shimane in which dancers in huge, coiling serpent costumes battle Susanoo. The serpent is a popular boss monster in games and anime, often simply called Orochi. Read more on our famous dragons page, and compare Yofune-Nushi, another Japanese dragon that demanded maidens.

Related

• Lernaean Hydra: The Lernaean Hydra is a many-headed water serpent of Greek myth that grew new heads when one was cut off, killed by Heracles and Iolaus as his second labor.
• Ryūjin: Ryūjin is the dragon god of the sea in Japanese myth and folklore, who rules from the undersea palace Ryūgū-jō, controls the tides with magic jewels, and was claimed as an ancestor of the imperial family.
• Yofune-Nushi: Yofune-Nushi is a sea dragon of Japanese folklore that lived in a cave beneath the Oki Islands and demanded a maiden each year, until the young diver Tokoyo killed it with a dagger.
• Kiyohime: Kiyohime is the woman of Japanese legend who, rejected by a young monk, turned into a great serpent, swam the Hidaka River, and burned him alive inside the bell of Dōjōji temple.
• Bashe: The Bashe is a gigantic serpent of ancient Chinese myth that swallowed whole elephants and spat out their bones after three years, until the archer Yi slew it at Dongting Lake.
• Famous Dragons
• Dragon Species
• Dragons Across Cultures

Sources and Further Reading

• Donald L. Philippi, trans., Kojiki (University of Tokyo Press / Princeton University Press, 1968)
• Gustav Heldt, trans., The Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters (Columbia University Press, 2014)
• W. G. Aston, trans., Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 (London: Kegan Paul, 1896)
• M. W. de Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan (Amsterdam: Johannes Müller, 1913)

Cite this entry: “Yamata no Orochi,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/yamata-no-orochi.