Susano-O, the Japanese Shinto god of the Storms, was always whipping up trouble wherever he went. Exiled from the heavens, he was on his way to his mother Izanami-no-mikoto in the netherworld. After being thrown out of his sister Sun goddess Amaterasu’s abode Tagamakahara, he lands on the earth in Nakatsukuni (Japan). Let’s join him in his new adventure…
Susano-O landed in Izumo where the river Hii flowed. Walking aimlessly along the course of the river, he spotted some chopsticks floating down. The sight of the chopsticks made Susano-O’s stomach growl with hunger. This means somebody lives up this river. I’ll follow upstream and maybe get a bite to eat, thought he.
When he reached the top, he found an old couple who were weeping inconsolably along with a beautiful girl who turned out to be their daughter. “Who are you and why do you all cry this way?” Susano-O asked them.
The old man, who was surprised to see him, said, “I’m Ashinazuchi and this here is my wife Tenazuchi. And this girl is our dear daughter Kushinada-hime.”
“We used to have eight daughters and Kushinada is the youngest of them. Seven daughters were taken away by the serpent Yamata-no-Orochi, one by one, every year. This year he is coming to take our youngest… ” and he began to cry loudly again.
“Stop crying now! Tell me, who is this Yamata-no-Orochi whom you fear so much? Maybe I can deal with him.” offered Susano-O.
“No, no no! You are no match for him! He is a monstrous serpent. He has eight heads and eight tails and he is so huge that moss grows on his back, which is filled with cedars and cypresses. His entire length holds eight mountains and eight valleys. His stomach is bloated, festering and bloody! His eyes are like winter cherries… ”
“Enough! I get the general picture! ’’ Susano-O gestured to him to stop. “Look here, Ashinazuchi san, I’ll get rid of this evil serpent for you. But will you promise your daughter in marriage to me if I do?” Kushinada was slender and beautiful and Susano-O thought that she would make him a sweet wife.
“I’m Susano-O, brother of Amaterasu, the goddess of the Heavens,” he introduced himself and the old couple were only too glad to agree. Of course, they were blissfully unaware of his antics in the heavens. And to them he seemed such a brave young man, and handsome too.
Let’s not forget that he is a god. He quickly changed Kushinada into a comb and put her in his mizura (a bun in his hair). He then gave instructions to her parents. “I want you to brew some sake... lots of it.” Sake is the white wine that the Japanese are very fond of. “Refine it, eight times over for it needs to be very, very strong. We need eight big sake fune (wooden barrels that store sake) of it. Build a long fence around your home and build eight gates. In front of each of those gates, build a platform where you’ll place a sake fune, eight in all! After it’s done, go hide! I’ll take care of the rest.”
So Ashinasuchi and his wife did as instructed. And eight sake fune were placed at the eight gates they built. Hiding themselves, they waited.
Before long, the monstrous serpent Yamata-na-Orochi, smelling the heady scent of the sake, came slithering down. Now, all serpents love wine and Yamata was no exception.
He went around the eight gates and put his eight heads into each of the eight sake fune and drank deeply from them all. Soon he had finished all of the sake and this made him very drowsy.
It was not too long before he completely passed out, good as dead!
At this point, Susano-O came out of his hiding place and with his sword Totsuka-no-Tsurugi (Sword of Length Ten Times its Handle) cut up the great big serpent into pieces — heads, tails and all. Soon the river Hii was awash with Yamata-na-Orochi’s blood making it a deep red.
As he cut up one of the many tails of Yamata-na-Orochi, his sword felt something hard inside. He tore it open and found lodged inside an exquisite sword! Sharp and beautiful, it was something very special indeed. Susano-O gifted the sword to his sister Amaterasu as a peace offering to settle their quarrel. The sword, known as Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven), later became one of the Imperial treasures of Japan.
Susano-O married the beautiful Kushinada and decided to live happily ever after in the land of Izumo. But for that he sought a suitable place to build his palace and found it in Suga. What a beautiful and refreshing place this is, he thought when he found the spot and broke into the first Haiku poetry that Japan saw. It went like this:
Yaukumo tatsu
Izumo yaegaki
Tsuma-gomi ni
Yaegaki tsukuru
Sono yaegaki wo.
Translated it reads:
Izumo is a land protected by clouds aplenty
And like this land of Izumo
I shall build a fence to protect the palace
Where my wife will live
Like the clouds in this land of Izumo
Susano-O made his father -in-law Ashinazuchi the caretaker of his palace and he lived there happily (ever after!) with his bride Kushinada-hime.
Even today stands the Sugo shrine where Susano-O recited this first Haiku. Want to know what ‘Sugo’ means? Refreshing, as Susano-O found the place to be!