Izumo Dragon

 Izumo Dragon~

The Japanese Deities in the Heavens 

Good Afternoon my dear Friends and Followers I have a new post about another Dragon from Japan. It is from ancient Japan Culture that this story comes from.. I hope that you all will Enjoy the Tale. It says in the ancient Japanese scripture that the Kojiki, after Susa-no-O is expelled from the Heavens, he encounters two Kuni-tsu-Kami(earthly deities) near the head of the Hi River in Izumo Province. These two Deities of the Heavens, Kuni-tusu-Kami are weeping because they had to give the sinister Orochi one of their daughters once every year(which was sacrificed as all their daughters were) and now they must sacrifice their eighth and last daughter to the Evil Orochi; whose name was Kushi-inada-hime. But this time the Sinister Orochi who dominated a certain area of Japan in this ancient time, which some say was the Izumo Province demanded Virgin sacrifices this time.   This is a more shorter version of the tale I will continue with the longer version too. So what happens next is; Susa-no-O asks for Kushi-inada-hime's hand in marriage and them he transforms her into a comb(kushi) which he then places into his hair. He then asks her parents to brew some sake that has been refined eight times and then builds a round enclosure with eight gates around that. Each has a platform for each sake vat. They would all together and help fill the sake vats and then wait, it wasn't that long to wait for the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.

Showing the Izumo Dragon
Drinking from the Sake Vats

Evil Orochi to appear. He dips his head into each of the vats and is soon intoxicated, allowing Susa-no-O to cut him into pieces. When he cuts the middle tail, his sword is chipped and there he finds the legendary sword;
Some version call the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is called - Kusanagi-no-Tsunegi which means in English ' The Grass-Cutting Sword'.  This Sword was given to Amaterasu, Susano- sister, who is the Japanese Goddess of the Sun. She then gave it to her descendants on Earth, the Emperor, form that point on it is said that it has been kept as one of the Three Sacred Treasures of Yamato.
How for the longer version which I thought you all might Enjoy!
I am sorry I wasn't able to find very many images for this post. But then again this is an ancient legend of Japan, from centuries ago so that could be one of the reasons why. The story begins after Amaterasu Omikami, the Japaneses Sun Goddess, was picked by her father, Izanagi-no-Mikoto(the Japanese Adam) to succeed him as the divine sovereign. All went well until Amaterasus recalcitrant brother, Susano challenged his sister to rule over the cosmos-Nihonshoki,  so in order to settle the controversy they the brother and sister performed a grand divination in which each deity magically spat out offspring; This is how the legend of the Izumo Dragon started and the magick sword too. So this is how it worked, with the pieces of Amaterasu-Susano initial sword and his sister goddesses of the Sun magatama or fertility jewel, the God was able to produced more children than his sister. However, Amaterasu-Susano brood produced more males, so his sister was adjudged the winner by the assembled gods. This didn't stop Susano, he refused to accept defeat from his sister and the assembled gods. So he stamped down on the dikes between the divine rice paddies and threw a piebald horse into the divine weaving hut thereby killing one of his sisters handmaidens. Well this was the end of that ever kinda relationship Amaterasu Omikami  had with her brother. After he killed one of her beloved handmaidens out of anger she withdrew from the heavens into
'THE CAVE OF DARKNESS'. However, she was tricked into reemerging from the cave, from her fellow deities, after insisting that she banish her brother Susano from the Heavens.
This is how the story of the famous dragon sword came about between the to siblings - The God Amaterasu-Susano of the night sky's and his sister the Goddesses-Omikami of of the Sun magatama and fertility.
When Amaterasu-Susano arrived to Earth near the headwaters of the HI river, which is now the northern part of the island of Kyushu, he noticed a pair of chopsticks were floating downstream so he decided to investigate,  being the curious God that he was. Once he got to the opposite end of the river he soon found a beautiful young maiden and her parents crying by the side of the stream. When he inquired as to why they were so sad, he learned that the girl (Kusa-Nada-hime/'Rice Paddy Princess), would soon be the latest offering/sacrifice to the ravenous eight-headed, eight-tailed dragon monster that they all called the~
YAMATA NO OROCHI ~ WHICH IN ENGLISH IS CALLED 'EIGHT-TAILED DRAGON' who was terrorizing the region of Japan. So as the tale goes~ The God Amaterasu-Susano then identified himself to the family and then he asked the doomed girls parents to bring him a large tub. Since they were desperate  to save their child they did as the God Amaterasu-Susano said hoping he could save their child from the sacrifice to the monster. So what the God Susano did was to ask the parents for their finest sake, and then filled the tub with the sake, Then being a God he was able to have the power to turn the beautiful young maiden Kusa-nada-hime or Rice Paddy Princess into a comb, which he inserted into his hair. Then he told the girls parents to hide. When the monster dragon finally did appear - all of his eight heads immediately began to drink the fine sake. You see all people and even monsters love the sake of the rice paddy of japan. The Creature drank so much of the sake he became very drunk almost dead like, so it was very easy for the God Susano to slay him. So when the God Susano hacked and slayed the dead drunk monster dragon, he started with one of the many tails and discovered a wondrous, magically sword, which he named the 'Mura-kumo-no-Tsurugi or 'Assembled Clouds Sword'. It was also called Kojiki Nihonshoki too. All of this was actually done for an peace offering to his divine sister.
Kinda makes you wonder what his true intentions really were when he was helping the young maiden and her parents. So back the the tale; once Susano had sent the sword up to his divine sister as a peace offering,  He restored the beautiful young maiden Kusa-nada-hime to a human form and married her. Even though he was a God, took up residence in a palace at Suga near the site of the Izumo Taisha Shrine in Shimane Prefecture. Well the tale doesn't end there, two generations later, when the Goddesses Amaterasu-Omikami, the Japaneses Sun Goddess sent her grandson, Honinigi, to claim the Reed Plain on her behalf, Honinigi brought with him three talismans of divine sovereignty; the Mirror, in which Amaterasu-Omikami thought she saw another Sun Goddess and was tricked into leaving the CAVE OF DARKNESS, the divine MAGATAMA, THAT IS, A FERTILITY JEWEL SIMILAR TO THE ONE THE GOD SUSANO HAD CHEWED UP DURING THE AFOREMENTIONED GRAND DIVINATION AND FINALLY LASTLY THE MURA-KUMO SWORD.
[note; if you are curious the monster at the times in ancient Japan was described besides the eight heads and tails, he also had eyes as red as winter-cherries. It was so long that its body would extend over eight valleys and eight hills, and its belly is always bloody and inflamed. Its back was covered with hikage(club-moss), hinoki(Japanese cypress) and sugi(Japanese cedar). I thought you all might like a clear description of the monster...]

So on with the tale- Although I couldn't find where it the Goddess Amaterasu-Omikami of the Divine Heavens and Sun, grandson Honinigi was able to claim the Reed Plain on her behalf; I did find when Honinigi's great-grandson; Jimmu Tenno and his warriors marched on an conquest from the Island of Kyushu along the north-coast of the Island Sea to Yamato, where Jimmu Tenno became the first Emperor of Japan. It seems that several generations of the line of Jimmu Tenno all played an wondrous and major part in Japanese culture, with the grand sword of the Izumo Dragon. Well I have more to tell you about this tale but it is getting a bit long so I will continue this with the Saga of the Yamato-takeru the Japan's greatest epic hero. 

I will try and get the Saga of the Yamato-Takeru out as soon as 

I can my dear Friends & Followers I love you all and I hope you all

Enjoy the tale in Ancient Japan 

YOUR WENDY