Who Is Susanoo (Susanō)?
The wild storm god who slew Yamata no Orochi
Susanoo-no-Mikoto
Susanoo (Susanoo-no-Mikoto) is a god of wild, violent power in the Kojiki, and the younger brother of the sun goddess Amaterasu. He was born when Izanagi washed his nose during his purification, and he was ordered to rule the seas.
Instead of doing his duty, he cried on and on, saying he wanted to go to the land where his dead mother was, so his father banished him. He climbed to heaven, held a sacred oath contest with his sister, and then committed one outrage after another. As punishment for the Heavenly Rock Cave incident, he was driven out of heaven as well. Descending to Izumo, he got Yamata no Orochi drunk on strong sake and cut it down with his sword, then married Kushinadahime. The great sword that came out of the serpent's tail (later called Kusanagi, the "Grass-Cutting Sword") he presented to his sister. Later he became the lord of Ne-no-Kuni, the underworld, where he set trials for Onamuji (Okuninushi) when he came to visit.
The poem "Yakumo tatsu" ("Many clouds rise"), which he composed when he built his palace at Suga, is sometimes called the very first waka poem.
Episodes featuring this character5
Episode 2
She Begged Him Not to LookIzanagi and Izanami in Yomi, the Land of the Dead
Izanami dies after giving birth to the god of fire, and her husband Izanagi goes down to the land of the dead to bring her back. She asks him for one thing: don't look at her. He looks. With a great boulder between them, they trade vows of death and birth and part forever. Then, as Izanagi washes himself clean, the children of the sun, the moon and the storm are born.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
Why the Sun Goddess Met Her Brother in ArmorThe Oath of Amaterasu and Susanoo
Cast out by his father, Susanoo climbs to Heaven to say goodbye to his sister Amaterasu, but she meets him in full battle gear. They settle it with a sacred oath in which each brings forth children. Susanoo shouts "I win!" and goes on a rampage, and his sister keeps covering for him. Then a weaving maiden dies, and Amaterasu, now afraid, shuts herself away in the Rock Cave.
19 pages
Episode 4
Darkness Fell. Why Are the Gods Laughing?The Heavenly Rock Cave (Ama-no-Iwato)
When the sun goddess Amaterasu shuts herself inside a rock cave, the world falls into darkness. The gods throw a festival outside her door and use laughter to draw the light back out. Her younger brother Susanoo brought on the darkness. He is the only one who can't laugh, and the gods banish him to the land below. There he stops when he hears someone crying upstream.
19 pages
Episode 5
To Slay a Dragon, First Get It DrunkYamata no Orochi
Cast out of the heavens and convinced he has lost everything, Susanoo lands by the upper Hi River in Izumo. There he meets an elderly couple who have lost seven daughters to a giant serpent, and their last daughter, Kushinadahime, who calmly waits her turn. He turns her into a comb and sets her in his hair, has the family brew sake eight times over, and lures the eight-headed Yamata no Orochi into drinking itself to sleep. Mid-battle he snatches the falling comb from the air, slays every head, and finds a great sword inside the serpent's tail. For the first time he gives something away of his own will, presenting the sword to his sister Amaterasu, then returns to Izumo, where clouds rise from the earth and he sings of the eightfold fence he builds for his bride.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 7
Meet the Father-in-Law: He's the Storm GodOkuninushi in the Land of Roots
Onamuji, the youngest brother, is killed twice by his older brothers. His mother's tears bring him back to life, and he escapes to the land beneath the earth, where he meets Suseribime, the princess he's fated to marry. There's one problem: her father is Susanoo, god of storms. A room full of snakes, a burning field, and a scalp crawling with centipedes are just the start of Susanoo's deadly tests for his new son-in-law.
19 pages