is a passenger

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

located in the city of

Kōka, Shiga 280px, Kōka "ninja house" 280px, Shigaraki ware ceramics is a city in southern Shiga Prefecture, Japan. (The word 'Kōka' is often rendered as 'Koga' in English, especially when referring to the "Koga Ninja".) , the city had an estimated pop ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

operated by the third-sector Shigaraki Kohgen Railway.

Lines

Shigaraki Station is a terminal station of the Shigaraki Line, and is 14.7 kilometers from the opposing terminus of the line at .

Station layout

The station consists of 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 connected by a level crossing, of which only the platform adjacent to the station is in use. The station is staffed.. Directly outside of the station, there is 5.3 m tall statue of a ''

bake-danuki ''Bake-danuki'' () are a kind of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) found in the classics and in the folklore and legends of various places in Japan, commonly associated with the Japanese raccoon dog or ''tanuki''. Although the ''tanuki'' is a rea ...

'', which is a well-known product of the area. The statue's clothes are changed depending on the season. Items recovered from

Shigaraki train disaster The was a railway accident that occurred in Shigaraki (now Koka), Shiga Prefecture, Japan on May 14, 1991. A Shigaraki Kōgen Railway (SKR) train and a West Japan Railway Company (JR West) train collided head-on, killing 42 people and injuring ...

are on display within the station building.

Adjacent stations

History

Shigaraki Station opened on May 8, 1933 as a station of the

Japanese Government Railway 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 station was closed from October 1, 1943 to July 25, 1947, when it reopened as a station of the

Japan National Railway 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). The station became part of the West Japan Railway Company on April 1, 1987 due to the privatization and dissolution of the JNR and was transferred to the Shigaraki Kohgen Railway on July 13, 1987.

Passenger statistics

Surrounding area

* former Shigaraki town hall * Shigaraki Traditional Industry Center *Shigaraki Central Hospital

Gallery

References

External links

Shigaraki Railway home page
Railway stations in Japan opened in 1933 Railway stations in Shiga Prefecture Kōka, Shiga {{Shiga-railstation-stub