Of all the monster-slaying myths of the ancient world, few can match the strangeness and the beauty of the story of Susanoo and the Yamata no Orochi, the great eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent of Japanese legend. The tale, told in the Kojiki (712 CE) and the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), recounts the storm god’s descent to the land of Izumo, his encounter with a grieving couple, his cunning plan to destroy the serpent, and his discovery of a great sword hidden in the tail of the beast. That sword, the Kusanagi, would become one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, and the place where the serpent fell would become the site of one of the most ancient Shintō shrines.
The Serpent of Izumo
The myth begins with a lament. In the land of Izumo, in what is now the western part of Shimane Prefecture, an old man and an old woman wept beside a river. The man was called Ashinazuchi, “Foot-Stroke-Grandfather,” and his wife was Tenazuchi, “Hand-Stroke-Grandmother.” They had once had eight daughters, beautiful maidens of the mountains. But each year, a great serpent came from the eastern lands, and each year it devoured one of the daughters. Now only the youngest remained, a maiden called Kushinadahime (also called Inadahime), “the Wondrous Inada-Bean-Priceable Princess.”
The serpent that devoured them was the Yamata no Orochi, the “Eight-Forked Serpent.” It had eight heads and eight tails. Its body stretched across eight hills and eight valleys, and its belly was constantly inflamed and swollen. Its eyes were red as the winter cherry, and on its back grew mosses and cypresses. Wherever it moved, the land was devastated, and the people lived in terror.
The Arrival of the Storm God
The banished storm god Susanoo came down from the heavens to the land of Izumo after his expulsion from the Plain of High Heaven for his wild behavior toward his sister Amaterasu. As he traveled through the land, he came upon the weeping couple and asked them what was wrong. They told him their story.
Susanoo, moved by their grief, offered to slay the serpent. He transformed the maiden Kushinadahime into a comb, which he tucked into his hair (in some versions, he made her into a hair ornament and held her safe), and he instructed the old couple to brew eight vats of strong sake. They were to build a fence of eight gates, set a vat of sake at each gate, and wait.
The Drinking of the Sake
When the great serpent came, his eight heads stretching across eight hills and eight valleys, his eyes red as the winter cherry, his body filling the air with the hissing of his breath, the smell of the sake rose to greet him. The serpent was partial to drink, and the promise of eight vats of strong sake was irresistible. He lowered his eight heads to the eight vats, one head to each, and drank the sake dry.
Then, drunk and helpless, the serpent lay down to sleep. The ground shook with the fall of his enormous body, and the moss and cypresses on his back were scattered. The great beast, the terror of Izumo, was now defenseless.
The Slaying of the Beast
Susanoo leapt out, his sword in his hand. According to the Kojiki, he had shaved his beard and painted his face to look like a maiden, and had transformed his form into that of a young man. He cut off each of the serpent’s heads with one blow, and as he cut through the great tails, he found a great sword hidden in the fourth (or, in the Nihon Shoki, the eighth) tail. This was the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the “Grass-Cutting Sword,” a weapon of extraordinary power hidden in the serpent’s body by the gods. The discovery of the sword gives Susanoo the right to become a protector of the human world and to give the sword to the imperial line.
After slaying the serpent, Susanoo transformed the comb back into the maiden Kushinadahime and married her. He built a great palace in the land of Izumo, in a place that came to be called the “Land of the Eight Clouds,” and he composed a famous song:
Eight clouds arise. The eight-fold fence of Izumo makes a house for my wife. Ah, those eight clouds!
The song is the oldest waka in the Kojiki. The place where Susanoo built his palace is the site of the great Izumo Taisha, one of the most ancient Shintō shrines in Japan, and the home of the great kami of the land, Ōkuninushi, son of Susanoo and Kushinadahime.
The Kusanagi Sword
The Kusanagi, also called the Ame-no-Murakumo no Tsurugi (“Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven”), has a long and storied history. According to one version of the myth, the gods had originally given the sword to Susanoo as a token of reconciliation with his sister, and he had hidden it in the body of the serpent. After the slaying, he presented the sword to Amaterasu as a peace offering, and Amaterasu gave it to her grandson Ninigi. According to legend, the sword was wielded by the hero Yamato Takeru, who used it to escape a burning field by cutting the grass around him in every direction (hence the name “Grass-Cutting Sword”). The sword has been enshrined in the Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya since the reign of the legendary Emperor Keikō, and has not been seen in modern times — it is said to be hidden within the shrine, and even the Emperor himself has not seen it. Some scholars have suggested that the original sword was lost long ago — perhaps burned in a fire in 682 CE — and that a replica is now venerated in its place.
The sword also plays a key role in the story of Empress Jingū, the legendary consort of the Emperor Chūai. According to the Nihon Shoki, after the Emperor died, Jingū was told by the kami in a vision to invade the Korean kingdom of Silla, and the sword in the dream was the Kusanagi. The Empress Jingū is said to have led a successful campaign across the sea, and her exploits are the basis of the historical claim that the imperial line had authority over the Korean peninsula, a claim that has been the subject of much scholarly debate.
Comparison to Other Dragon-Slayers
The slaying of Yamata no Orochi invites comparison with other great monster-slaying myths. The most famous is the Greek myth of Heracles and the Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpentine monster. The Norse myth of Thor and the World Serpent Jörmungandr also has a similar structure: Thor goes fishing, the great serpent rises from the sea, and Thor strikes at it with Mjölnir. The Yamata no Orochi is the Japanese cousin of these world-serpents, the great beasts whose bodies wrap around the cosmos.
The difference is in the ending. Heracles succeeds in slaying the Hydra, and Thor, in some versions, succeeds in slaying the World Serpent. But Susanoo does not just slay the serpent: he discovers a great treasure in its body, marries the maiden he has saved, and founds a dynasty. The myth is not just about a battle; it is about the foundation of a new order, the giving of a sacred sword, and the establishment of a divine line.
Cultural Significance
The myth has been retold in the noh theater, in kabuki, in bunraku puppet plays, in painted scrolls, and in modern film. The image of the multi-headed serpent appears on countless banners and protective charms.
The myth has been read as a metaphor for the victory of order over chaos. The serpent is the great storm of destruction from the eastern lands; the storm god tames the storm; and the foundation of the imperial line is the cosmic order that emerges from the conquest of chaos. In another reading, the serpent is the older kami of the land, displaced by the newer gods of the imperial line, and the discovery of the sword is the symbolic transfer of the older power. Either way, the story remains a touchstone of Japanese myth — a tale of courage and cunning, of marriage and sword-giving, of the foundation of a dynasty. The serpent, even in death, gives birth to a great treasure, and the storm god, even in exile, becomes the founder of a kingdom.
Last reviewed: June 2026.