August 31, 2005
The Shinto God at Tojinbo Cliffs
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Shohei Arato, Tojinbo, Fukui Prefecture,
Japan, The week of July 7th, 2005,
info@ghostvillage.com
I am currently a student studying in Japan, and I was invited to
my friend's house in the Fukui Prefecture, on the western coast of
Japan, one of the most haunted prefectures in the nation. It has more
graves than any other location in Japan and is home to the infamous
Tojinbo Cliffs, a place were people commit suicide by jumping in to the
ocean.
I was with my friend and several of his classmates, at around 2 AM in
a family restaurant, when the subject of ghost pictures came up, and
several of them said that they had taken pictures at the Tojinbo Cliff,
and had seen the spirits that float around the area (my friend could
even see them, a couple who jumped off together, standing on the edge of
a cliff). I did not believe them, and I challenged them to accompany me
up to the cliffs. There was 8 of us in all -- about 5 of them refused to
go, but the others managed to convince 3 of them. The other 2 that had
refused to go had very bad experiences there. One of them was a victim's
cousin, and the other took a picture, only to have the ghost cling to
his shoulder, and was plagued with nightmares -- he saw people throwing
themselves off a cliff. The nightmares continued until he visited a
shrine where he was blessed and a Buddhist priest preformed a ritual
that would send the spirit away. (In Japan, we take the spirits of the
past very seriously. On the 13, 14, and 15 of August, there is a
National Holiday called Obon where we go to the family grave and light a
fire of barley to lead them back to the family house so they can protect
us. Many elderly Japanese pray in the morning, offering fruit, rice,
sake [rice wine] to their family shrine... Anyway, please forgive me for
the detour, I shall continue with my story.)
The Tojinbo cliffs can be separated in to 4 main parts. The cliffs
itself, a red bridge where the bodies wash up, an island that the red
bridge connect to the main land, and it is said to be the resting place
of the spirits of the deceased, and a statue of a Shinto God in a
tunnel, which is said to show displeasure in his face if something bad
will happen.
We arrived at the cliffs around 3 AM and went directly to the cliffs.
There is a total of about 10 cliffs, and we stood at the end of the
cliff and looked out. I saw nothing, as did several other people, but a
member of our group seemed to be losing his strength in his legs, and we
had to help him walk. Then we headed over to arguably the most haunted
area of the cliffs -- the telephone box where many suicide victims make
their last calls to their loved ones. We took a video on one of the
guys' cell phones. When we played it over, at the :19 second mark, we
could hear a women screaming in the back round "Stop! Please Stop! Don't
do this!" Needless to say, we left in a hurry after that.
We headed over to the bridge which legend has it that the hands of
those who had died would reach up and cross the bridge. We did not
linger, nor did we cross the bridge to the island. Rumors had always
flown that people who went there would carry more than a single spirit.
We left and went to the tunnel. We drew straws to see who would go
see the statue. I was third, and when I entered, I found to my immense
pleasure, that the statue seemed to be smiling, like it was blessing me.
However, the last member of our group was not so lucky. He came out and
told us that the face showed displeasure, disgust, and hate.
I called my friend the other day to see how he and his family was
doing. He immediately went in to the story of our friend who was the
unlucky victim of the statue. He had suffered a major breakdown, quit
school, lost his job, and broke up with his long-time girlfriend, then
disappeared. They found him on the island, under a shrine, sobbing.
