Yamata no Orochi

In both versions of the Orochi myth, the Shinto storm god Susanoo (or "Susa-no-O") is expelled from Heaven for tricking his sister Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

The Kojiki tells the following version: So, having been expelled, [His-Swift-impetuous-Male-Augustness] descended to a place [called] Tori-kami (鳥髪, now 鳥上) at the head-waters of the River Hi in the Land of Idzumo.

So His-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness, at once taking and changing the young girl into a multitudinous and close-toothed comb which he stuck into his august hair-bunch, said to the Deities Foot-Stroking-Elder and Hand-Stroking-Elder: "Do you distill some eight-fold refined liquor.

So as they waited after having thus prepared everything in accordance with his bidding, the eight-forked serpent came truly as [the old man] had said, and immediately dipped a head into each vat, and drank the liquor.

The legendary sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which came from the tail of Yamata no Orochi, along with the Yata no Kagami mirror and Yasakani no Magatama jewel, became the three sacred Imperial Regalia of Japan.

Carr[6] notes that Japanese scholars have proposed "more than a dozen" orochi < woröti etymologies, while Western linguists have suggested loanwords from Austronesian, Tungusic, and Indo-European languages.

The most feasible native etymological proposals are Japanese o- from o (尾, "tail"), (which is where Susanoo discovered the sacred sword), ō (大, "big; great"), or oro (峰, "peak; summit"); and -chi, meaning "god; spirit", cognate with the mizuchi river-dragon.

[8] Miller[9] criticized Benedict for overlooking Old Japanese "worö 'tail' + suffix -ti – as well as an obvious Tungus etymology, [Proto-Tungus] *xürgü-či, 'the tailed one'", and notes "this apparently well-traveled orochi has now turned up in the speculation of the [Indo-European] folklorists.

"[10] Littleton's hypothesis involves the 3-headed monster Trisiras or Viśvarūpa, which has a mythological parallel because Indra killed it after giving it soma, wine, and food, but lacks a phonological connection.

Kuzuryū (九頭龍, "nine-headed dragon"), deriving from the nagarajas (snake-kings) Vasuki and Shesha, is worshipped at Togakushi Shrine in Nagano Prefecture.

[11] The slaying of the dragon is said to be similar to the legends of Cambodia, India, Persia, Western Asia, East Africa and the Mediterranean area.

Often as these myths evolve from their source, the role of the storm god (often the head of a pantheon) is adopted by culture heroes or a personage symbolizing royalty.