Late Edo period~Meiji period Donated by the Sakata Chuo Senior High School Alumni Association (Formerly owned by the Shirasaki family)
This work is based on the legend of the storm god Susanoo-no-Mikoto and how he slayed the Great Eight-Headed Serpent. This tale takes place after Susanoo was banished to the land of Izumo (in present-day Shimane prefecture) by order of his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu-Omikami. After his expulsion from Heaven, Susanoo encountered an old couple in a hut in the mountains. They were weeping because they had been forced to give one of their daughters to a giant eight-headed serpent every year for seven years, and it was now time for their eighth daughter, Kushinada-hime, to be sacrificed and devoured.
Susanoo tricked the serpent into drinking from eight jars of sake—it is said that all serpents love sake—and then swiftly slew the serpent by chopping off its head and cutting its body into pieces while it was still drunk and asleep. He presented Amaterasu with The Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds—one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan—which had been concealed in the tail of the Eight-Headed Serpent, and later married Kushinada-hime.