The was a limited express train service in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) between

Ueno is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Park. Ueno is also home to some of Tokyo's finest cultural sites, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Museum of Na ...

in Tokyo and Minakami in

Gunma Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 Square kilometre, km2 (2,456 Square mile, sq mi). Gunma P ...

History

The ''Minakami'' service (written in ''

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

'' as "みなかみ") began as a semi-express service between Ueno and Minakami from 1 October 1964. This operated until 30 September 1965, after which the train was renamed ''Okutone''. The name was revived from 1 October 1997 (this time written in ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' as "水上") following the renaming of the former '' Tanigawa'' limited express service. From the start of the revised timetable on 4 December 2010, the ''Minakami'' will cease to be a regular service, operating only during busy seasons.

Rolling stock

Services are formed of 7-car

651 series The is an AC/ DC dual-voltage electric multiple unit (EMU) type operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan since March 1989. Trains originally operated as 7+4-car formations on '' Super Hitachi'' limited express services betwe ...

EMU formations, sometimes coupled with '' Akagi'' services.

References

External links

JR East 185 series ''Akagi''/''Kusatsu''/''Minakami''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minakami Named passenger trains of Japan East Japan Railway Company Railway services introduced in 1964 1964 establishments in Japan