Yamata no Orochi had eight heads. Its name is often translated as “Eight-Forked Serpent,” “Eight-Headed Serpent,” or “Eight-Headed Dragon,” and the creature is also described as having eight tails.
The monster appears in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. It terrorized an elderly couple in the land of Koshi by devouring one of their eight daughters each year. When only Kushinadahime remained, the storm deity Susanoo offered to defeat the serpent in exchange for marrying her.
Susanoo arranged eight vats of specially prepared sake behind a fence with eight gates. After Yamata no Orochi drank from them and fell asleep, Susanoo cut off its heads and tails. From one tail he discovered the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which became one of Japan’s Three Imperial Regalia. The name’s “eight” is literal in the core legend, although numbers such as eight can also suggest abundance in early Japanese literature.