Yasaka Shrine’s deities No. 23

How are you everyone? This is the defeated soldier. Finally, Susanoo-no-Mikoto is about to slay Yamata-no-orochi. Will it work? Let’s continue the story.

And so, just as Susanoo-sama had told them, they prepared and waited, and just as they were waiting, the Yamata-no-orochi did indeed come, just as Ashinazuchi-sama had told us.

Susanoo-no-Mikoto made a decree against Yamata-no-orochi. You, Yamata-no-orochi, are indeed a wise god. Here, I dare you to drink and enjoy yourself.

(*In the past, I mistakenly thought that Susanoo-sama turned Kushi-inada-hime-sama into a comb, put it in his hair, and transformed himself into the beautiful Kushi-inada-hime-sama to make Yamata-no-orochi drink alcohol, but this was a mistake by Yamatotakeru-no-Mikoto, and the literature says such a thing should never have happened, he stood up to it heroically.)

(I had mistakenly thought that Susanoo-sama, on the other hand, was a god so beautiful that he could transform himself into Kushi-inada-hime, while doing what he did in Takamagahara.)

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Susanoo-sama immediately gave eight jars of sake to the eight mouths of the Yamata-no-orochi to drink.

Immediately, Yamata-no-orochi hung his head in each sake boat and drank the Yashiori sake. There, drunken with alcohol, it was unable to move and fell face down into sleep.

Hayasusanowo-no-Mikoto immediately pulled out the ten-fist sword (tukka no turugi) he wore at his waist, cut down the Yamata-no-orochi, slaughtered it, and exterminated it.

The sword is also said to have been a kara-sahi sword (a kind of plow used in Korean agriculture). With that sword, he cut off the head and belly of Yamata-no-orochi.

The sword with which Susanoo-no-Mikoto slayed Orochi is also said to be the sword of Amanohahakiri.

The sword was named after this Yamata-no-orochi to have been cut off, and was called Orochi no Aramasa.

So the river of Hi changed into blood and flowed bright red.

(There is also a legend that the Yamata-no-orochi could not be completely vanquished and escaped to Mount Ibuki in Shiga Prefecture, where it became the deity Ibuki-daimyojin, a legend that Orochi’s seven heads could never be cut off, and that Susanoo-sama, in his wisdom, cut off the eighth head, the last one, or a legend that Orochi came back to life again. Therefore, we diligently believe in Susanoo-sama and pray to him to protect us.)

I think just as the priests and Shinto priests have prayed to Susanoo-sama against the flooding of the river, regarding Kii River in Shimane Prefecture as Yamata-no-orochi, Kyoto people have prayed to Susanoo-sama, the deity of Yasaka Shrine to quell the flooding of Kamo River.)

(Perhaps it represents the fact that Japan has long been a farming nation, and when a woman was bitten by a poisonous snake in the rice paddy and died helplessly, a brave young man in the village killed many of the snakes with a plow. Perhaps it was the look on his face as he killed that poisonous snake that people thought the river of Hi had become red with blood.)

(To be continued)

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Author

落ち武者(Surviving Soldier)
Nice to meet you, my name is Surviving Soldier. My star sign is Cancer and my blood type is O. My hobbies are visiting shrines and reading books. I have a loud voice, which is easy to understand at best, but at worst, I am noisy, so I would like to be careful. I am looking forward to working with you.