Hashigui-iwa

Hashigui-iwa is one of Wakayama's most striking geological formations: roughly 40 rock pillars marching 850 meters from the shore into the sea near the town of Kushimoto. The pillars formed over millions of years as waves and weather eroded the softer rock surrounding harder columns of igneous stone, leaving these sentinels standing against the tides. Local legend offers a more poetic explanation. The monk Kobo Daishi, it is said, attempted to build a bridge to the offshore island of Oshima in a single night. Dawn came before he could finish, and these pillars are all that remain of his abandoned effort. The formation is designated a national natural monument and is most spectacular at sunrise, when the pillars stand silhouetted against the Pacific sky. At low tide, visitors can walk out among the bases of the rocks, exploring tide pools teeming with small sea creatures.