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

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.