The was established in 1887 and served as a major railroad company during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

in Japan. The railroad was headquartered in Kobe, and Nakamigawa Hikojirō served as head of the railroad.

Rail lines

The first rail line opened in 1888. By 1894, the Sanyō Railway had been extended west, along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, from Kobe to Hiroshima. The railroad was later extended to

Shimonoseki is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. With a population of 265,684, it is the largest city in Yamaguchi Prefecture and the fifth-largest city in the Chūgoku region. It is located at the southwestern tip of Honshu facing the Tsush ...

. The

Sanyō Main Line , stylized as SANYO, is a Japanese electronics company and formerly a member of the ''Fortune'' Global 500 whose headquarters was located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo had over 230 subsidiaries and affiliates, and was founded ...

connected with the

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

in Kobe, and the Kyūshū Railway at Moji. The railway gained a reputation for being one of the most progressive and innovative in Japan in its day, introducing the first sleeping cars, dining cars, and electric lighting on its trains. In 1904, the 530 km (330 mile) trip from Kobe to Shimonoseki took 11 hours. An express train from Kobe to Hiroshima took 8 hours, travelling 304 km (189 miles).

Steamship

Sanyō also operated steamship service, from Shimonoseki to

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. Sanyō Railway also operated a ferry from

Miyajimaguchi Station Miyajimaguchi Station is a railway station on the Sanyō Main Line in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). From the pier near the station there are ferry services for Miyajima (Itsukushima) by JR Miyajima Fe ...

, which opened on September 25, 1897, to

Itsukushima is an island in the western part of the Inland Sea of Japan, located in the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. It is popularly known as , which in Japanese means "Shrine Island". The island is one of Hayashi Gahō's Three Views of Japan specified in ...

(Miyajima).

Nationalization

The railroad was nationalized in 1906, under the

Railway Nationalization Act The brought many of Japan's private railway lines under national control. The 22nd Diet of Japan passed the bill on March 27, 1906 and Emperor Meiji signed on March 30, 1906. The promulgation of the act on the Official Gazette occurred the next d ...

, becoming the San'yō Main Line.

References

Defunct railway companies of Japan Railway companies established in 1887 Railway companies disestablished in 1906 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan {{Japan-rail-company-stub