is a railway station on the

Yokosuka Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The Yokosuka Line connects Tokyo Station with in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. Officially, the name Yokosuka Line is assigned to the 23.9 km segment between and ...

Kamakura, Kanagawa is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

, Japan, operated by

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

(JR East).

Lines

Kita-Kamakura Station is located on the

and is also served by Shōnan-Shinjuku Line through services. It is located 2.3 km from the junction at

Ōfuna Station Ōfuna Station( ja, 大船駅, ) is a railway station in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). Lines Ōfuna Station is served by the Tokaido Main Line, Shōnan-Shinjuku Line, Negishi Line ( Keihin-T ...

, and 51.7 km from

Tokyo Station Tokyo Station ( ja, 東京駅, ) is a railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is ...

Station layout

Kita-Kamakura Station has two opposed

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s serving two tracks, which are connected by a level crossing at the Kamakura end of the platforms. The station building is located on the side of the up (Tokyo-bound) track at the end of the platform nearest to Kamakura. To reach the down platform, passengers must cross the tracks via a level-crossing. The station building has one normal exit, the , where there are three automatic ticket gates. However, during the morning school commute time only, students of the Kamakura Gakuen schools and ''Kita-Kamakura Joshi Gakuen'' schools can exit without passing through the ticket gates, via a temporary exit. This exit does not have a ticket gate. On the side of the tracks leading away from Tokyo there is special exit which, like the Front Exit, is usable all day. It is mainly intended for disembarking, but passengers who already have a ticket from this station, or who are using a

Suica is a prepaid rechargeable contactless smart card, electronic money used as a fare card on train lines in Japan, launched on November 18, 2001. The card can be used interchangeably with JR West's ICOCA in the Kansai region and San'yō region i ...

or Suica-affiliated IC card can enter here. There is no automatic ticket gate, and only a very simple Suica touch point. There is one more special exit on the same side of the tracks, near the middle of the platform. It is only usable during the morning rush hour, Golden Week, and other times when the station is very crowded. During crowded weekend days and holidays there is a station attendant manning the ticket gate there, allowing payment in cash. A simple Suica touch point was installed in 2008. Although the current station includes many stairs, there is a plan to make the station

barrier-free Universal design is the design of buildings, products or environments to make them accessible to people, regardless of age, disability or other factors. It addresses common barriers to participation by creating things that can be used by the ma ...

, to be completed in 2013. According to the plan, elevators will be installed where there are stairs, both platforms will have wheelchair ramps, extending the platforms by seven meters, the entire platforms will be covered by a roof, and a multi-purpose toilet will be installed.

Platforms

History

Kita-Kamakura Station opened 20 May 1927Kita-Kamakura Station information
Retrieved on 12 September 2008. as a station on the

Japanese Government Railways The Japanese Government Railways (JGR) was the national railway system directly operated by the Japanese Ministry of Railways ( ja, 鉄道省, Tetsudō-shō, ) until 1949. It was a predecessor of Japanese National Railways and the later Japan Rai ...

(JGR), the pre-war predecessor to the

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

(JNR) to serve the

Yokosuka Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama. History In 1866, the Tokugawa shogunate government established the ...

and related

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

facilities at Yokosuka. It was initially a temporary stop, in operation from the months of May through October, but was upgraded to a full station on 1 October 1930, at which time the present station building was completed. The station came under the management of JR East upon the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the Japanese National Railways (JNR) on 1 April 1987.

Surrounding area

Kita-Kamakura Station is close to three major

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temples:

Engaku-ji , or Engaku-ji (円覚寺), is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Founded ...

Kenchō-ji Kenchō-ji (建長寺) is a Rinzai Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which ranks first among Kamakura's so-called Five Great Zen Temples (the ''Kamakura Gozan'') and is the oldest Zen training monastery in Japan.English pamphlet ...

, and

Tōkei-ji , also known as or , is a Buddhist temple and a former nunnery, the only survivor of a network of five nunneries called , in the city of Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the Rinzai school of Zen's Engaku-ji branch, and was op ...

References

* Harris, Ken and Clarke, Jackie. ''Jane's World Railways 2008-2009''. Jane's Information Group (2008).

External links

Kita-Kamakura Station information
{{coord, 35, 20, 17, N, 139, 32, 40, E, type:railwaystation, display=title Railway stations in Kanagawa Prefecture Yokosuka Line Shōnan-Shinjuku Line Buildings and structures in Kamakura, Kanagawa Railway stations in Japan opened in 1927