Chamberlain translates Susa-no-wo as “Impetuous-Male-Deity”, connecting his name with susama, “to be impetuous”. But, as Aston points out, the implied noun susa, “impetuosity”, does not exist. There is, however, a town named Susa in Idzumo,[11] with which area the legends regarding the god are specially associated. Susa-no-wo may therefore have been simply “the god of Susa”. Aston, following Dr. Buckley, Chicago, regards him as a personification of the rain-storm. Japanese writers, on the other hand, have connected him with Godzu Tenno, an Indian Hades deity, and with the moon-god, or regarded him as a war-god, while some European scholars have referred to him as a “rotating-heavens god”. Having been born from the nose of [[363]]Izanagi, we should expect Susa-no-wo to have a connection with wind and “the air of life”, as well as with rain and the sea. It is of special interest to note in this connection that, as Aston says,[12] “Japan is annually visited by destructive typhoons, accompanied by great darkness and a terrific downpour of rain”. Susa-no-wo is “continually weeping, wailing, and fuming with rage”, and is “a lover of destruction”, and he is associated with Yomi, the habitation of the deities that work evil against mankind. Susa-no-wo may be the Japanese Indra, who brings rain. Japanese wind-gods were givers of rain, as well as wind.[13] Like Indra, Susa-no-wo is a dragon-slayer. A festival “celebrated in his honour at Onomochi in Bingo” is described by a Japanese writer in these words:[14]
“The procession is a tumultuous trial of speed and strength. Bands of strong men seize the sacred cars, race with them to the sea, and having plunged in breast-deep, their burden held aloft, dash back at full speed to the shrine. There refreshments are served out, and then the race is resumed, the goal being the central flag among a number set up in a large plain. Their feet beat time to a wildly shouted chorus, and they sweep along wholly regardless of obstacles or collisions.”
Indra, with Agni, the fire-god, was the winner in a race of the gods; he links with Vayu or Vata, the wind-god, and he wages war against the Danavas, the demons of ocean.[15]
In China dragon-boat races were held so as to cause rain. Imitation boats were likewise carried through the streets to the seashore, and there burned so as to take away evil influences. The boats represented fighting dragons, and these were rain-bringers. The Japanese [[364]]imitated these Chinese customs, but not, however, until about the eleventh century.[16]
As a trickster among the gods, Susa-no-wo bears some resemblance to the Scandinavian Loki; he is, like that deity, an ally of the powers of darkness and destruction, and he similarly suffers banishment from the celestial land. Susa-no-wo also recalls Nergal, the Babylonian warrior-god, who conquered Hades, and was “the death spreader” (Mushtabarrû-mûtanu).
The deities of the sun and moon proceeded to rule the day and the night as commanded by their parent Izanagi, but Susa-no-wo did not depart to the ocean, which had been committed to his charge; instead, he cried and wept until his eight-grasp beard reached the pit of his stomach. Says the Ko-ji-ki:
“The fashion of his weeping was such as by his weeping to dry up all the rivers and seas. For this reason the sound of bad deities was like unto the flies of the fifth moon as they all swarmed, and in all things every portent of woe arose.”
The reference to the god’s tears causing the green mountains to wither and the waters to dry up has greatly perplexed Japanese commentators. But there are statements in Asian and American mythologies regarding “evil” or “poisonous rain” distributed, to the injury of vegetation, by dragons that may be sick or badly disposed towards mankind. De Visser refers to a Buddhist legend about a poisonous Naga that guarded a big tree and killed all those who took a branch from it; when angry it sent thunder and rain.[17] Central Asian legends tell that evil rains were sent out of season by disturbed and enraged dragons. A Chinese story tells of a sick dragon that, [[365]]having been roused by prayers, gave “a badly-smelling rain which would have spoiled the crops if a diviner had not discovered it in time and cured the dragon at the latter’s request”. Thereupon a fertilizing rain fell and a very clear spring dashed forth from a rock.[18]
In Ancient Egypt the deities wept vitalizing tears (see [Index]). Ra’s tears gave life to gods and men, the tears of the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut became incense-bearing trees. The tears of Osiris and Isis caused life-giving herbs, &c., to grow, but the tears shed on the world by the evil Set and his partisans produced poisonous plants. When deities were enraged, their saliva, sweat, and blood on touching the earth germinated and produced poisonous plants, scorpions, serpents, &c.[19]
The Chinese Buddhists believed in a Naga that, by means of a single drop of water, could give rain to one or two kingdoms, and even prevent the sea from drying up.[20] Similarly a single tear from Isis-Hathor, as the star Sirius, that fell on the “Night of the Drop”, caused the Nile to rise in flood.