Storm God Who Slew the Eight-Headed Serpent
Susanoo was born when Izanagi washed his nose, the last of the three noble children, and was given the sea to rule. Instead he wept and howled for his dead mother until the green mountains withered, and was banished by his father. Ascending to heaven to take leave of his sister Amaterasu, he claimed victory in a vow-contest against her, then ran amok, wrecking rice fields and hurling a flayed colt into the sacred weaving hall. For provoking the Rock Cave crisis the gods fined him, cut his beard and nails, and cast him out.
He descended at Torikami on the upper Hii River in Izumo, where an old couple wept over Kushinada-hime, the last of eight daughters not yet devoured by the serpent Yamata-no-Orochi. Susanoo had them brew eightfold-refined sake and set out eight vats; when the serpent's eight heads drank themselves senseless, he hacked it to pieces, turning the river red. Inside its middle tail his blade struck a great sword, Ame-no-Murakumo, later called Kusanagi, which he presented to Amaterasu. He married Kushinada-hime, built a palace at Suga, and sang the verse counted as the first waka poem.
As ancestor of Okuninushi he stands at the head of the Izumo mythic line; in medieval times he merged with the Buddhist deity Gozu Tenno, and Kyoto's Yasaka Shrine and its Gion Festival honor him to this day.
