One version says Shuten Doji was born in Nakamura, in the county of Kanbara, Echigo Province, while in another version he was born at the foot of Mt. Ibuki, Omi Province, the child of the daughter of a powerful local ruler and Yamata-no-Orochi, a legendary giant snake with eight heads who appears in Nihon Shoki, or Chronicles of Japan, and who fled to Omi from Izumo Province after being beaten by Susano, the Shinto god of the sea and storms.
酒呑童子は、一説では越後国の蒲原郡中村で誕生したと伝えられているが、伊吹山の麓で、日本書紀などで有名な伝説の大蛇、八岐大蛇が、スサノオとの戦いに敗れ、出雲国から近江へと逃げ、そこで富豪の娘との間で子を作ったといわれ、その子供が酒呑童子という説もある。