Animal Facts

Yamata no Orochi, meaning “Eight-tailed Serpent”, is a legendary beast in Japanese myth. It has 8 dragon or also snake heads and 8 tails as well. It was slain by Susa-no-Ou, a god who was expelled from the Heavens and had to live in the world of the humans.

In the last years of its life it went to the Hii river to devour one of the eight daughters of the couple that lived there. That couple, who were on their way to sacrifice their eighth daughter, met Susa-no-Ou who promised to help them if he could get the girl as bride. Yamata no Orochi's weakness for Sake was its doom, as Susa-no-Ou tricked it into drinking Sake with each of its heads, which weakend the beast so much, it was easy for the god to kill it.