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San'in Kaigan NP, Hyogo
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Its armor-like pattern was made underground: cooling magma cracked into long columnar joints and crosswise fractures. Their crossings resemble *odoshi*, the lacing that links small plates in Japanese armor.
Yoroi-no-Sode rises about 70 m and stretches roughly 200 m across, with a face tilted around 70°. That makes this broad sea cliff nearly as steep as it is tall.
Takanosu-jima (“Hawk’s Nest Island”) and Hachinosu-jima (“Beehive Island”) are remnants of Yoroi-no-Sode’s own rock bed, separated from the cliff by wave erosion.
Yoroi-no-Sode became a National Natural Monument in 1938—25 years before San’in Kaigan was designated a national park in 1963. The cliff had national protection before the park was created.
Just west of Yoroi-no-Sode, waves have cut the Kujaku-dōmon (“Peacock Gate”) through the same rocky bed. The tunnel formed where erosion worked along the rock’s columnar and sheet-like fractures.
