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Yamata no Orochi
Koshi Province
Danger Level: 9/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
Eight HeadsSize ManipulationRegeneration
Lore & Legend
Eight Heads in the River
The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki tell how Susanoo found a family in Izumo whose daughters were being eaten, year by year, by an eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent that filled eight valleys. He stupefied it with eight vats of sake, cut it apart, and drew the sword Kusanagi from the tail.
The monster is local and hydrological — a Koshi-province terror — before it becomes an imperial relic in the grass-cutting sword.
Primary Sources
“Its eyes were like winter cherries, and it had eight heads and eight tails. On its body grew moss and trees.”