Aijō-Tenaki Cliffs

The Aijō-Tenaki Cliffs [愛丞斐涛] are a series of cliffs located in north-western Ganyama Prefecture. The elevation of the cliffs averages around 30 metres.
The rocks were originally formed around 12 to 13 million years ago due to various volcanic activities, and were created by magma mixing with sedimentary rock. The Aijō-Tenaki area received protection by the national government in 1935 as a Natural Monument. It is considered a prefectural landmark and has been a source of much inspiration for filmmakers, writers and playwrights throughout history. It has been featured as a key location in a number of works of fiction, most famously the book/radio play Long Way to Shore by Ami Monyama.
== Legends ==
One legend has it that two lovers, born into families who hated each other, arranged to meet secretly at the cliffs and throw themselves down into the ocean in order to be together forever in death. Their ghosts are still said to haunt the area, which also gained its name from this myth. While aijō-tenaki literally means 'cliffs where the lovers stepped', it is a phrase hononymous to aijō tenaki, meaning 'lovers leaping'. Therefore the moniker is something of a double entendre.
Another legend says that the area's name originally came from a 'Princess Aijō', the daughter of a powerful chief, who was betrayed by her father and sent to live in a nunnery far away from her family and village. In order to escape her fate she ran to the cliffs and jumped into the sea, committing suicide. In the following years, her anguished ghost would cause terrible storms to occur throughout the surrounding area and every single crop harvest would fail and suffer blight. However, a local priest was able to finally subdue and purify the soul of Aijō, and afterwards the storms ceased.