Dragons of Fame

Yamata-no-orochi

Nickname: The Dragon with Eight Heads
Type/Species: Hydra-Eastern Dragon
Origin: Japanese Mythology

History: (Minor note: "eight" in Japan also meant "many" so whenever you see the word "eight" there could have been many more.)

Susa-no-o was a traveling warrior that came upon distressed people. He found two elderly people and a young girl. The two elderly people were Ashi-nadzuchi and Te-nadzuchi, and there daughter, Kushi-nada-hime, was also with them. They were crying because a huge, eight-headed serpent called Yamata-no-orochi had devoured their seven other daughters and was returning to eat this last one. On the promise that Susa-no-o would be able to marry Kushi-nada-hime, he promised to slay the serpent. So, they put out eight jars of Sake out on a fence. Happily, Yamata-no-orochi appeared and ate them all up.

When the Sake kicked in, Yamata became very drunk. Susa-no-o easily cut off all his eight heads. When he was cutting off his eight tails, he found one to be hard to cut into. In the tail, he found a sword called Murakumo-no-Tsurugi.¹

Symbolism: Yamata is another example of Japanese dragons being more like Western-Style dragons than Eastern Dragons.

Physical Description: Having at least eight heads and eight tales, Yamata was a huge dragon-serpent which was eight hills long and had cypress and fir trees growing on his back.

Related Articles: Dragon Slayers: Susa-no-o

1. Japanese Mythology by Juliet Piggot

For more information about footnotes and references, please see the bibliography.