is a railway station on the Shinonoi Line in the city of Chikuma,

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. It is operated by the

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

Obasute Station, which is served by trains on the Shinonoi Line, is located 54.2 km (33.7 miles) from the

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

of the line at

Shiojiri Station is a train station in the city of Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, operated jointly by East Japan Railway Company (JR East), with a freight terminal operated by the Japan Freight Railway Company. It is the operational border between JR East a ...

Station layout

The station, which is unattended, is situated on a switchback, and has two

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 connected by a footbridge. The station building is on the south platform. Through passenger trains not booked to call at Obasute do not use the switchback; however, freight trains make use of it if booked to cross a passenger service at this point.

Platforms

File:Obasute station platform.jpg, The dead-end station tracks on the switchback (left), with the main line seen descending towards Shinanoi on the right File:Scene of Obasute Station.jpg, The view over the Zenkoji Plain from the station platforms File:Obasute Station Sign.jpg, Station platform sign displaying the switchback layout

History

The station opened on 1 November 1900. With the privatization of

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) on 1 April 1987, the station came under the control of JR East. The station is named after nearby Mt. Ubasute, which in turn is named after the possibly mythical practice of ''

ubasute is a mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Kunio Yanagita concluded that the ubasute folklore comes from India’ ...

'', abandoning elderly relatives in the mountains to die.

Tourism developments

Although the station itself is unstaffed, local volunteers serve tea at weekends to the many tourists who visit for the express purpose of enjoying the extensive views over the Zenkoji Plain which are to be had from the northern platform. Additionally, since 2017 Obasute station has been a calling-point on the route of the luxury Shiki-Shima cruise train, which stops here overnight at the end of the first day of the spring and autumn 2-day cruises. In connection with this traffic an evening bar has been built on the station's south platform for the use of the cruise passengers and a viewing area provided on the north platform.

Passenger statistics

In the fiscal year 2018, the average daily number of passengers starting their journeys at Obasute was 64.

References

External links

JR East station information
{{Shinonoi Line Railway stations in Japan opened in 1900 Chikuma, Nagano Railway stations in Nagano Prefecture Shinonoi Line Stations of East Japan Railway Company