Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology A

Source: The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi from Romance of Old Japan by E.W. Champney and F. Champney

I really enjoy learning about Japan a lot in general, but its mythology is especially interesting. I took two years of it as a language and absolutely loved it, but I never had time to take the literature courses due to scheduling and work issues. It's nice to get to read a little bit of it here! We discussed Shinto some, but I don't know much about the religion. I'm enjoying the language here. I like the mix of prose and poetry, though I like the poetry a little bit more!

Susa-no-wo sees a chopstick floating down the river and decides that this must be a sign of people living nearby. He sets out to go look for them. He comes across two old people and a pretty woman, who is getting "caressed" and cried over. He asks why they are crying. The old woman says that they are crying for their eight daughters who were taken by the serpent. This is their last daughter. They don't want to see her taken away.

They then go on to describe the monster of Koshi. "Eyes as red as a ripe mountain cherry, a noisome blood-inflamed body, armed with eight fearsome heads and eight forked tails. Moreover its back is all overgrown with firs, cedars, and pines, and it trails its tortuous coils over eight valleys and as many mountains." Sounds pretty scary. I doubt ole' Susa-no-wo will have an issue with this. He agrees to slay the serpent. He boasts about his lineage first.

The girl turns into a comb and he puts it into his hair. I don't understand this, but that's okay. Her and her parents are deities, so I guess that makes sense they can do things like that. No, it says Susa-no-wo did this? Okay, I guess. He had the woman make sake of eightfold strength and a lot of it. He used logs to build doors at which he placed vats of the sake. The serpent drank the sake and got drunk, making the job easy for Susa-no-wo.

He sliced the monster into a thousand fragments and he was no more. The sword "kushanagi" was brought to heaven after he found it hidden in its tail. Kushinada transformed back into a person and the two got married!

Susa-no-o and the Serpent (Wikimedia Commons)