Tojinbo

Tōjinbō lies on the coast north of the old port town of Mikuni, near the mouth of the Kuzuryū River. For about a kilometre, the land ends in vertical walls of rock split into five- and six-sided columns, dropping around 25 metres into the Sea of Japan. In winter, north-westerly gales drive large waves against the cliffs.

The columnar jointing at Tōjinbō is among the finest examples of its kind in Japan, and the cliffs were designated a Natural Monument and Place of Scenic Beauty in 1935. They form part of the Echizen-Kaga Kaigan Quasi-National Park, which follows the coast north into Ishikawa Prefecture.

A short street of souvenir shops and seafood restaurants leads to the cliff top, and sightseeing boats circle below the cliffs to the island of Oshima.

The cliffs are made of pyroxene andesite from volcanic activity in the Miocene, around 12 to 13 million years ago, when magma intruded into sediments near the surface. As it cooled, the rock shrank and cracked into long vertical columns. Waves have since eroded the coast back to expose the columns in cross-section and profile.

The windswept cliff tops carry salt-tolerant grasses and pines, and Oshima island preserves a coastal forest. The rich waters off the coast are known for Echizen crab and other seafood.

The cliffs are named after Tōjinbō, a violent monk of Heisen-ji temple who, according to legend, was pushed from the cliff by fellow monks in 1182; his anger is said to raise the storms that strike the coast each year. Mikuni was a prosperous port on the Sea of Japan trade route in the Edo period, and its festival, the Mikuni Festival, is one of the major events of the Hokuriku region.