Week 7 Storytelling: Kushinada Tames the Serpent

Two Steps from Hell - Victory

~

Kushinada’s mother and father had told stories about the gods many times over. She and her seven sisters had learned about the marriage of Izanagi and Izanami, the gods tasked with creating all of Japan and its islands. About the births of Amaterasu and Susanoo, the celestial gods who controlled the sun and the rain, and about their feuding.

“Don’t be afraid of the thunder,” Kushinada’s mother would tell her. “The restless skies only mean Susanoo and Amaterasu are fighting, as siblings do.”

When summer storms brought lightning and floods down upon her family’s rice fields, she wondered what it would be like to have the power of rain and lightning at her fingertips.

On clear days, she could see miles of lonely sage-green valley stretching in all directions. When the sky poured down rain, it wrapped the mountain in an intimate haze. Water rustled the cottage's mossy roof, fell down to the leaves of the verdant rice crops, pooled into the water standing at their roots.

One day, as she stood in the midst of a downpour, she spoke, “Is there really someone out there?”

And a voice answered, “My name is Susanoo.”

~

On Kushinada’s fifteenth birthday, a monstrous serpent appeared in her family’s rice fields. The beast’s eyes pulsed cherry-red. His white underbelly split into nine white trails on the undersides of its nine necks. The beast was so massive its back could’ve been mistaken for mountains. Forgotten bronze brambles grew over his black scales, caught and forgotten.

“I am Orochi,” he hissed, his many coils fencing the cottage. “And this mountain is mine. If you don’t offer me a sacrifice, I’ll raze your fields and destroy anyone who dares to escape alive.”

Kushinada’s father, the son of the god who really presided over this mountain, protested. But, before Kushinada’s eyes, her oldest sister stepped out and declared, “I will sacrifice myself to save my family.”

After Orochi vanished with her, she was never seen again.

~

As Kushinada grew and the serpent appeared again and again, she began to desire this power that turned the sky into churning storms. Her parents grew weaker, and with each year, Orochi returned to make off with another sacrifice. By the time Kushinada was twenty-two years old, her seven sisters were dead. The waning powers of her mother and father, minor gods themselves, had done nothing to shield them against the beast that plagued them.

Kushinada would be next--her death was imminent. Though she was nowhere near as powerful as the celestial gods, she refused to die on Orochi's terms.

On the eve of the fateful day, Kushinada loosed one of her wooden sandals. Weaving a wildflower into its straps, she dropped it into a swollen stream and let it be carried away.

~

On Kushinada’s 23rd birthday, her parents dressed her in her most beautiful kimono and wept, waiting for Orochi’s arrival.

What came walking through their rice fields, however, wasn’t any kind of beast, but a tall man with long, black hair and a sword at his hip. In one hand, he carried a flower-wrapped sandal.

Kushinada’s father, sensing the man’s divine power, bowed low. “My lord,” he said, “I am the son of this mountain’s protector. Please, what brings you here? I’ve never seen any person, god or mortal, in these lonely mountains before.”

The man nodded in acknowledgement. “Please, stand.” He didn’t seem concerned with the minor god in front of him. Instead, Kushinada caught his eye, and he stroked his chin curiously. “What has you all so upset?”

“My lord, we mourn the loss of our last daughter. Year after year, Orochi appears to devour another of our children. Kushinada is the only one we have left, and soon, we’ll lose her, too.”

The man said to Kushinada, “Even though you’ve never seen my face, we’ve met many times. I wouldn’t let a friend be sacrificed to a monster.” He turned to face Kushinada’s father. “Kind stranger, I’ll slay the serpent Orochi. In return, allow me to marry your daughter.”

Relieved, her father said, “Of course, if such a task is possible for you, certainly Kushinada will be in good hands. But who are you? What is your name?”

“His name is Susanoo,” Kushinada said.

~

She waited while the battle between Orochi and Susanoo raged. They had been fighting for days, but each of Orochi’s eight heads was more savage than the last. The thorns clinging to its hide leached Susanoo’s energy away with each brush of skin against scale. Storms raged above, but every lightning strike seemed invigorate the beast.

Soon, the onslaught forced Susanoo to retreat for a short while so he could catch his breath. His sword had been tangled irretrievably in the briars growing from Orochi's scales. The beast’s eight necks swung this way and that, searching for Kushinada.

“Where are you, morsel?” he bellowed, teeth snapping and tails lashing.

Kushinada emerged from the rice fields. With a polite bow, she said, “Great serpent, would you fulfill my last request, and have a drink with me?”

Orochi laughed. “Bold move. Fine—if you brought enough sake to make me drunk, this fight still wouldn’t be any more difficult.”

With each mouth, he took a drink of sake, brewed with rice from Kushinada’s family’s own fields. However, Kushinada had added a powerful sedative. By the time Orochi came to, she had strapped his necks with bridles, and his back with a saddle. She held Susanoo’s sword.

“What do you think you’re doing, girl?” Susanoo roared.

She heaved the blade over her head and brought it down, slicing into Orochi’s tail. He howled. From his flesh, she pulled out a different sword—sleek and black, it flashed with a rainbow of colors when she unsheathed it.

“I believe I’ve been used,” Susanoo said to himself, seeing Kushinada drop his old sword and mount Orochi’s back.

~

Some legends say that, on stormy summer nights, Kushinada can be seen hurtling through the skies on a serpent’s back, brandishing a black sword. The beast’s roars echo like thunder, and its eight necks blaze like white lightning.

Some say Susanoo follows after her, but he hasn’t caught up with her yet. 

In the original story, Susanoo happens upon Kushinada and her parents right before they’re about to give her over to Orochi. In my version, Kushinada has prayed to/spoken with him before, but in the original, it’s a chance encounter. In the original, Susanoo outwits and kills the serpent who has eaten all seven sisters. In return, Kushinada marries him. In my version, Susanoo’s bride-to-be tames the serpent instead. She does so by tricking Orochi into drinking sake—which Susanoo does in the original—and then binding Orochi and using Susanoo’s sword to cut off his tail. So, having saved herself, Kushinada takes Susanoo's place as the deity of summer storms. Kushinada herself is a minor goddess, but the serpent (along with the divine sword in its tail) will function as her new divine tool: it transports her around on its back, its roars are her source of thunder, and its eight long necks could evoke an appearance of white lightning.

I chose this story to rewrite because I love stories with dragons, serpents, and other beasts. I like heroes who slay dragons, but I like heroes who ride dragons even more. In the first draft, Susanoo was going to die in the fight, but by the time I had written up to the ending, that seemed heartless. I liked the idea of an implied love story with an ambiguous ending, so I let him live.

I removed all reference to Kushinada being a princess. She was a princess in the story, but didn't seem to have a kingdom, so the title seemed to reference her parents being gods. I preferred the idea that she and her family were utterly isolated, so for this story, she'll be a minor goddess, but not named a princess.

Sources:
"The Eight Forked Serpent of Koshi" from Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney
Wikipedia: Yamata no Orochi 

Image:
Goddess Riding Turtle by hakurama01