Susano-wo-no-mikoto, the storm god, was expelled from heaven for his misdeeds against his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu-o-mikami. He descended to a place known as Soshimori, or ox's head, at Silla, with his son, Isotakeru-no-kami. But he did not like the place and decided to go somewhere else. He built a clay boat and travelled to the plane of Izumo on the west coast of Japan. He reached mount Torikami on the island of Honshu.
After roaming around for a few days, he reached the bank of the Hii-Kowa river. There he met an old earthly kami (god/spirit) and his wife. They were known as foot-shaking elder (Ashinazuchi) and hand-shaking elder (Tenazuchi) respectively. They had a beautiful daughter, Kushinada-hime. But they were very sad and were weeping inconsolably.
As Susano-wo introduced himself as the brother of the shining goddess Amaterasu, the elderly couple finally got some hope. They told Susano-wo that they had eight daughters. But an eight headed serpent, Yamata-no-Orochi, who came from Koshi, had devoured seven of them. Only the youngest daughter was alive and they were expecting the serpent on the very next day to come to eat her as well.
Hearing that, Susano-wo told them that he could help them get rid of that monster, but they had to give their daughter to him in marriage. The old couple agreed happily. Hence, Susano-wo told them to build a strong fence with eight doors and to prepare eight barrels of eight-fold distilled strong liquor. When the fence was ready, Susano-wo placed one barrel of liquor in front of each door.
The next day, the serpent appeared as expected. He was enormous in size with eight heads and eight tails. His cruel eyes were red and he was as big as eight hills and eight valleys. Susano-wo transformed the youngest daughter into a comb and hid her in his hair. With a display of obedience and respect, he offered the liquor to the serpent. The eight heads of the serpent entered through the eight doors and drank the entire liquor with satisfaction. Soon the serpent became intoxicated, and this was the time Susano-wo had been waiting for. He unsheathed his ten-span sword and started to cut the heads of the serpent one by one. He slaughtered the monster even before it could react with its full strength. The Hii river became red with the blood of the serpent.
After cutting all the heads, Susano-wo began to cut the entire serpent into pieces. While he was cutting the middle tail, his sword broke. Surprised by this, Susano-wo dug deeper and found a mighty sword inside. The sword was named Kasanagi-no-Tsurugi. Susano-wo went to his sister, Amaterasu, and gave her the sword as a sign of his atonement for the past deeds. The sword, along with a metal mirror (Yata-no-kagami) and a carved bead (Yasakami-no-magatama), representing strength, wisdom, and benevolence respectively, is still considered as part of the Imperial Regalia of Japan.
After that, Susano-wo built a magnificent palace at Suga and started to stay there with his wife, Kashinada-hime.
Susano-wo travelled to a lot of places in Japan. He removed hairs from different parts of his body. Susano-wo's son, Isotakeru, and his two sisters (Oyahime and Tsumatsuhime), planted the hairs throughout Oyoshima (another name for Japan), starting from Kyushu, the most south-western region of Japan. The hairs grew into different types of trees. These three gods finally went to the Kii province and sowed the remaining hairs there, and thus the forest of Kii was formed.
The storm god was also known as Guzu Tenno and was revered throughout Japan as the god of disease and healing.
Finally, Susano-wo became the lord of the underworld, or Ne-no-kuni. Among his descendents, the most famous was Ohkuninushi, who also married Susano-wo's daughter after lots of hardship. But that is another story...
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