Japanese Serpent Myth

Introduction

This is a story about one of the Japanese mythological creatures, a huge eight-headed snake that terrorized the village of Izumo.  It is also about the Japanese God, Susanoh, who can be compared to the Greek god Poseidon.  This story is also a lot like the story of Hercules killing the Hydra. 

The Serpent With Eight Heads

The Japanese God, Susanoh, was a wild god.  He was eventually kicked out of Heaven because of his misbehavior, and he fell and landed on the village of Izumo.   While he was checking the village out, he heard a story about this giant snake.  In order to keep the rest of the village safe, the villagers had to sacrifice a girl to the eight-headed serpent each year.  This year, it was Princess Kusinada who would be sacrificed!  Susanoh talked to the parents of the Princess, and he offered to save her from the serpent.  In return, they had to let him marry the Princess!  Kusinada’s parents agreed to this arrangement.

Susanoh told the villagers to build a fence with eight gates and put under each gate a jar filled with sake.  Then the serpent came, and each of its eight heads began to drink the sake from the jars.  It soon became drunk!  It fell asleep and Susanoh murdered it, cutting it into pieces.

In the end, Susanoh and the Princess got married and built a huge palace in the village of Izumo.

Did you know?   In ancient Japan, “eight” meant “many”, so the serpent could have had even more than eight heads.  It could have been 10 or even 100! There really is an Izumo City in the western part of Japan.  This myth probably began there.

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