Yamata-no-Orochi — The Rebirth of Susanoo
Banished from Takamanohara, the Plain of High Heaven, Susanoo no Mikoto descended to Torikami, on the upper reaches of the river Hi in the land of Izumo. Seeing chopsticks drifting down the stream he knew that people dwelt upstream, and going up the river he found an old man and an old woman weeping, a maiden between them: Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, children of the mountain god Ōyamatsumi no Kami, and their daughter Kushinadahime.
Asked the reason, the old couple told him: "We had eight daughters, but the Yamata-no-Orochi, the eight-forked serpent of Koshi, has come year after year and devoured them one by one. This year it is the turn of this, our last daughter." The serpent, they said, had eyes red as winter cherries; upon one body, eight heads and eight tails; moss and cypress and cedar growing upon its back; and a bulk that stretched across eight valleys and eight peaks.
Susanoo undertook to slay the serpent on condition that Kushinadahime be given him as his wife. When Ashinazuchi said, "With reverence — but we do not know your name," he declared, "I am the brother of Amaterasu Ōmikami, now come down from heaven," and the old couple answered, "Awesome indeed; we offer you our daughter." Susanoo turned the maiden into a comb and set her in his own hair. Then he had the old couple prepare strong sake refined through many brewings, the yashiori sake, and set a vat of it at each of eight gates. The serpent came, dipped each of its eight heads into a vat, drank the sake dry, and sank into a drunken sleep. Susanoo, who had waited for that moment, drew the ten-span sword (totsuka no tsurugi) at his side and hewed the serpent to pieces. The river Hi, it is said, ran red with its blood.
When he cut into a tail, the blade of his sword was notched. Splitting the tail open, he found within it a great sword: the blade Tsumugari, later called Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. "This is a wondrous sword," said Susanoo. "It is not a thing for me to keep." And he presented it to Amaterasu Ōmikami. The sword Kusanagi would in time be bestowed upon the heavenly grandchild, and is handed down to this day as one of the Three Sacred Regalia.
The serpent overcome, Susanoo sought ground on which to build his palace and came to the place called Suga. "Coming here, my heart is refreshed (sugasugashii)," he said. Watching the clouds rise there, he sang: "Yakumo tatsu / Izumo yaegaki / tsumagomi ni / yaegaki tsukuru / sono yaegaki o" — "Eight clouds arise: an eightfold fence of Izumo, to keep my wife within; that eightfold fence." It is handed down as the oldest waka poem of Japan. The god driven in his wildness from Takamanohara became, upon the earth, a hero who saved the people, and with his beloved wife built a new land. It is the story of the rebirth of the god of destruction.
Izumo, the stage of this myth, is the land of Izumo Taisha, which enshrines Ōkuninushi no Ōkami, held to be a descendant of Susanoo no Mikoto. There is also a view identifying Ketsumimiko no Ōkami, the principal deity of Kumano Hongū Taisha, with Susanoo, suggesting a lineage of faith that joins Izumo and Kumano.
