The Sites of Yamata-no-Orochi Tales

須我神社
Suga Shrine
Suga Shrine was founded when Sasanoo married Princess Kushinada after defeating Yamata-no-Orochi. It is believed to be the first shrine built in Japan and is enshrined with Susanoo, Princess Kushinada, and their children. Since he composed a poem praising the beauty of scenery when clouds were rising from the ground and wrapped around the shrine, this spot is also known as a birthplace of poems in Japan.
印瀬の壺神(いんぜのつぼがみ)
Inze no Tsubogami
The pot enshrined at the precinct of Yaguchi Shrine in Inze is known as one of the pots which contained ‘The Sake of Yashiori,’ which was the alcoholic beverage that Susanoo used to intoxicate Yamata-no-Orochi (the eight-headed and eight-tailed serpent) when slaying the serpent.
天が淵
Amagafuchi
Amagafuchi is a pool found upstream of the Hii River where Yamato-no-Orochi had believed to have dwelled. At Amagafuchi, the river stones have blue and red stripes called Jaobi, which means strips of a serpent, and its patterns are said to have been the serpent’s footprints.
八本杉
Happon-sughi
The site is known as a place where Susanoo planted eight Japanese cedar trees after he cut off the serpent’s eight heads and buried them after his victory. As the cedar trees planted have been washed away by floods of Hii River on several occasions, the current standing ones were re-planted in the late 19th century.