Tojinbo Cliffs

Tojinbo Cliffs Tojinbo Cliffs, Mikuni Town, Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture 東尋坊　三国町　坂井市　福井県

• Getting to the Tojinbo Cliffs
• Tojinbo Food
• Tojinbo Tower
• The Tojinbo Cliffs
• The Tojinbo Legend
• Suicide Spot
• Oshima Island
• Accommodation Near Tojinbo
• Access - Getting to Tojinbo
• Japan City Guides

Johannes Schonherr

The Tojinbo Cliffs in northern Fukui Prefecture are an ancient rock formation dating back to a volcanic eruption about 12 to 13 million years ago.

Direct exposure to the elements ever since has turned them into bizarrely shaped rocks towering as high as 25 meters over the crashing waves of the Japan Sea.

The cliffs surround a small peninsula protruding out into the water and consist of a volcanic stone material known to geologists as pyroxene andesite. Translated into common language that means that they look very dark in contrast to the ocean behind - and that they are, fortunately, not particularly slippery for those venturing out to their furthest edges.

The Tojinbo Cliffs are widely advertised as the main tourist attraction in northern Fukui Prefecture.

Tojinbo Cliffs, Fukui Prefecture

Getting to the Tojinbo Cliffs

The Tojinbo Cliffs are served by the bus from Awara Onsen Station (connecting to the Kanazawa - Fukui city train line) towards Mikuni Station, which connects with the Awara Line of the Echizen Railway towards Fukui.

The bus runs only once an hour and the entire bus fleet consists of vintage 1960's and 1970's models. Fukui Prefecture prides itself as an area where the "real" traditional Japan can still be fully experienced. Indeed, the often very crowded, creaking old buses mark a stark contrast to the ultra-modern high-tech environs of Kanazawa Station, the current terminus of the Hokuriku Shinkansen.

Peeks at the villages the bus passes through confirm the notion of northern Fukui Prefecture being stuck in time - somewhere in the later days of the Showa Period (1926-1989). Quiet, run-down but somewhat nostalgic at the same time.

The bus eventually makes its stop at Tojinbo. Walking from the bus stop to the cliffs means - entering a large, vintage restaurant mall.

The cliffs surround a small peninsula where the inner part has been turned into a large seafood-serving tourist spot. An old-fashioned one at that - which clearly began in times when natural wonders were simply regarded as picturesque backdrops and heavily used to support the local economy.

Aerial View of the Tojinbo Cliffs

Tojinbo Food

The seafood on offer however is fresh and of the best quality. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from. All of them offer fresh seafood, the dishes on offer depending on the season.

Winter is high season for the highly prized Echizen crab, the locally caught variety of snow crab.

In fact, nearby Mikuni Town's greatest claim to fame are exactly these crabs. The town is home to a fabulous harbor market where the freshly caught snow crabs are sold right off the fishing boats.

Beside the restaurants, there are numerous small food stalls offering sea urchin, fried squid, raw and fried oysters and other assorted seafood for a quick bite. Those stalls usually have some tables attached for the customers to sit down and eat. Hot tea is served for free, cold beer is available for purchase.

Purist nature lovers longing for solitude at the cliffs might abhor the great commercial food market right in front of the cliffs.

Actually, the market is by far the the best place to sample a great variety of the local seafood in the whole region. The ladies running the stalls are old-fashioned, rugged Fukui coast natives. Rough on the edges but quick to help if you should need anything.

Seafood Vendor at the Tojinbo Cliffs

Seafood Market at the Tojinbo Cliffs

Tojinbo Tower

Tojinbo Tower is located to the left of the shopping street. The tower, opened in 1964, is 55 meters tall and 100 meters above sea level. On clear days it offers a 360 degree view far out into the Japan Sea, over the adjoining coastline and all the way to Mount Haku (2,702 meters) in neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture.

Tojinbo Tower, Fukui Prefecture

The Tojinbo Cliffs

The cliffs are indeed impressive, especially the high, darkly colored rock pillars whose base is slowly being claimed by the gnawing waves of the Japan Sea.

Though the walkway on top of the cliffs is lined with protective chains, no such chains stop visitors exploring even the furthest reaches of the cliffs.

Truth to be told, though, the cliffs look most impressive from the walkway above. Venturing out to the further edges might add a sense of adventure but it doesn't provide any better views of the cliffs.

If you feel like enjoying the cliffs in a more private, or say, meditative way, looking at the waves crashing at the rocks, it's easy to follow the walkway on the top of the cliffs for a few hundred meters and to look for a quiet spot from which to observe the cliffs and the waves below.

As crowded as the main area of the cliffs almost always is, in a five minute walk you are able to find a wonderful and quiet viewpoint all for yourself.

Tojinbo Cliffs, Fukui Prefecture

The Tojinbo Legend

Bizarrely shaped, dark rocks hit by mighty crashing waves. It would be a big surprise if there wasn't be a bizarre dark legend attached to it. There is, of course.

The legend has it that in the year 1182 a particularly nasty and thus much disliked monk named Tojinbo from the then powerful Heisenji Temple (near Fukui city) was lured here by his fellow monks with the promise of a great seaside party. The party commenced above the cliffs until Tojinbo was so drunk that he couldn't master any resistance anymore - at which point he was thrown down the cliffs into the sea.

Another legend claims that Tojinbo, the nasty monk, fell in love with a princess named Aya and that another admirer of the princess arranged for the drinking party and had Tojinbo thrown off the cliffs.

Both versions state that Tojinbo's ghost still haunts the cliffs up to the present - and that the name of the cliffs has its origin in the name of the murdered monk.

Tojinbo Cliffs, Fukui Prefecture

Suicide Spot

In more recent times, the Tojinbo cliffs made headlines as one of the main suicide spots in Japan. Indeed, with easy access to even the most dangerous areas of the cliffs and with the promise to die quickly in beautiful surroundings without making a mess (the sea will quickly wash away all blood), suicides sky-rocketed in the 1990's and 2000's.

In some years, about 25 people jumped down the cliffs per year. That would mean an average of 2 suicides per month.

That number has significantly decreased by now mainly thanks to a retired policeman who started a volunteer group looking out for potential suicide-minded people on top of the cliffs. They approach troubled-looking visitors, engage them in talks and if necessary, try to offer them help in overcoming their personal problems.

Along the walkway on top of the cliffs, several free public suicide prevention phones have been installed, connecting to a suicide help-line.

Still, about once a month, someone jumps.

Oshima Island seen from the Tojinbo Cliffs

Oshima Island

Across a small bay, you can spot Oshima Island. It is connected to the mainland by a long red bridge. The island is home to a small shrine, a small lighthouse and many ghost stories.

Those ghost stories focus to a good part on the souls of people who killed themselves at the Tojinbo Cliffs and whose bodies then washed up on the rocky shore of the island. If you cross the red bridge at midnight, one myth goes, those ghosts might try to grab you and pull you into the sea.

Another one says that if you walk around the island in counter-clockwork fashion, you will be cursed by the ghosts and scary, strange things will happen to you soon after.

The Tojinbo Cliffs with Tojinbo Tower seen from the outskirts of Mikuni Town

Accommodation Near Tojinbo

If you wish to stay near the Tojinbo Cliffs there are a few hotels to choose from including the Mikuni Kanko Hotel near Mikuni Station or select from several hotels in nearby Awara-Yunomachi: the Awara Onsen Seifuso, the Yuraku Hotel or the Hokuriku Awara Onsen Mimatsu are all recommended with onsen baths and delicious local food.

Access - Getting To Tojinbo

By train from Kanazawa

From Kanazawa Station take a Limited Express or local train to Awara Onsen Station. The bus service to Tojinbo is about once an hour. Travel time on the bus is about 40 minutes. Buses are timed to provide a good connection to the Limited Express trains, arriving by local train will result in a longer waiting time.

Bus passes

At Awara Onsen Station, you can buy two types of bus pass:

• A bus pass good for two days for all stops all the way to Mikuni Station costs 1000 yen. This is the most useful pass for going to Tojinbo. Even if you just go to the Tojinbo Cliffs and back from Awara Onsen on a single day, it's worth buying the pass. It is still cheaper than the regular bus fare.
• A bus pass covering all the stops from Awara Onsen to Mikuni Station and Tojinbo and, in the opposite direction from Awara Onsen Station, all the stops towards and including Eiheiji Temple near Fukui city costs 2000 yen.

With the bus pass, you will receive a timetable pamphlet spelling out all the bus stops in English.

From Osaka

From Osaka Station take the Thunderbird Express Train to Fukui Station, change to an Awara Line train of the Echizen Railway. Get off at Mikuni Station or Mikuniminato Station, then take the above mentioned bus towards Awara Onsen / Eiheiji Temple.

Tojinbo Tower

Open daily from 9 am to 5 pm.

Admission 500 yen per adult, 300 yen per child.

Tojinbo Tower website (in Japanese)

Access to Oshima Island

Oshima Island is one bus stop away from Tojinbo on the bus towards Awara Onsen / Eiheiji Temple.

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