Yamata No Orochi - The Demon Serpent of Japan



Before the arrival of outside religions, like Buddhism, Christianism or Islam, Japan had developed it owns believes and mythology called Shintoism. A polytheist religion, their pantheon of beings where called the Kami which referred to gods as much as demons and monsters. Among them stood the dragons, which while keeping the reptilian nature of their western cousins remained completely different. Instead of being fire breathing winged lizards hoarding treasures and tormenting the mortals, Eastern Asian dragons took on a more serpentine form and acted more as forces of nature, being both benevolent and oppressing.

Among them stood one in particular, named Yamata no Orochi, known for being an evil creature who tormented a family being eating the daughters one at a time every years... okay so level of epicness we’ve seen better but anyway. The elderly couple, completely out of their depth against such a terrible beast, could do nothing but watch their daughters being devoured years after years until they were down to one. With the return of the dragon's demon being days away, the old couple despaired at the prospect of losing their last child, until a stranger arrived. The man in question was none other than Susanoo, the Shinto god of storms and brother of Ammaterasu, the leading figure of the pantheon.

Susanoo, seeing the despair of the two humans in front of him, asked them what happened to them to which the couple told him about their blight at the hand (tail?) of the Yamata No Orochi. Now despite is rather wild and mischievous nature, the storm god was among the more compassionate Kamis and quickly felt pity for them. The storm deity offered his help in exchange for the hand of their last daughter in marriage, which isn’t as bad as its sound. The couple, taken back by the sudden proposal, hesitated quite a bit as while eager to find a way to save their daughter had a hard time taking him seriously. They didn’t yet knew who they were talking to and so though Susanoo was a complete lunatic, and not the type of person any sane parents would willingly marry their daughter too.

Sensing their mistrust, the storm god was quick to rectify this misunderstanding, told the couple who he was and that Ammaterasu herself tasked him with freeing these lands of Yamata No Orochi’s plight. Of course, this last bit was a complete lie, as Susanoo had actually been ejected from heaven by his sister after a particular bad prank. Indeed after winning a contest of creation, Susanoo celebrated his victory by ransacking Amaterasu's rice fields, so she kicked him out of the house. Damn, other pantheons wished their gods were this normal and level ahead, those who’ve seen my post of Shiva and Parvati knowns what I am talking about.

Anyway, now knowing who they were dealing with, the elderly couple were quick to agree on his terms. Susanoo immediately went to work, first turning the daughter in question into a comb and hid her, he then ordered her parents to provide him with the strongest alcohol they had. While confused by the demand, the two mortals executed themselves without asking any questions, as after all Susanoo must know what he’s doing. They brought him 8 barrels of a particularly potent. Sake, which the storm god set on 8 different hills of the valley and waited for the dragon to come.

Soon enough Yamata No Orochi reared his ugly heads, seeking the 8th daughter but was quickly distracted by the alcohol. After drinking all 8 barrels, the dragon fell down in a drunken stupor, unable to move.... wait what?! So considering that the damn thing is described as big enough to fill the whole valley, and that the barrels seemed to be of normal size as the elderly couple could carry them. This beg the question, what kind of plutonium induced grade alcohol was this, who distilled it and for who was this destined to?

Back to our story, Susanoo sprang into action as soon as Yamata No Orochi fell down and cut open its belly, killing the dragon. In here, the storm god found the kusanagi-no-tsurugi, the heavenly sword and one of the three regalia of Japan and though this would make a great gift to Amaterasu and apologies for destroying here fields. Whether he was forgiven isn’t known as while Susanoo would continue living on the mortal realm with his new wife, Amaterasu would be later seen wielding the sword. So the best guess is that she did forgave her brother, but the later decided to stick around on earth instead.

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