Eizan Cable

The line forms one link in a chain of mountain transport on the Kyōto side of Mount Hiei: passengers reach its lower terminus from central Kyōto by the Eizan Electric Railway's Eizan Main Line, ride the cable car up to Cable Hiei, and continue toward the summit by the Eizan Ropeway. The cable line was built specifically as a western approach to Enryaku-ji, the historic Tendai Buddhist temple complex on Mount Hiei. It is entirely distinct from the Sakamoto Cable (the Hieizan Railway Line) on the Shiga side of the mountain, which provides the eastern approach to the same temple.

Technically the line is a single-track funicular worked by two counterbalanced cars on the alternating system, laid to 1,067 mm gauge over its 1.3-kilometre length and serving just two stations. Its grades are exceptionally steep: the maximum gradient is 530 per mille — about 27 degrees 55 minutes — with a minimum of 215 per mille and an average of 413 per mille. The combination of length and steepness produces the 561-metre vertical interval that makes it the steepest-rising funicular in the country.

A railway licence for the route, between Aoradani and Shimeigatake in Yase village of the former Atago District, was granted on 8 November 1922. The line opened on 20 December 1925, built and operated by the Kyoto Electric Light Company (Kyōto Dentō) as the cable line of its Eizan Electric Railway division. At opening it ran from Saitōbashi — today's Cable Yase — to Shimeigatake, the station now called Cable Hiei.

In the wartime reorganisation of Japan's private railways, the cable line was separated from Kyōto Dentō and transferred to the newly formed Keifuku Electric Railroad on 2 March 1942, the transfer having been authorised the previous month. Like many non-essential mountain railways, it was suspended in 1944 as the Pacific War tightened the supply of materials and labour, and it resumed operation in 1946 after the war's end.

The line's two stations were renamed in the postwar decades. On 1 August 1965 Saitōbashi Station became Cable Yaseyūen — reflecting the Yase amusement park then served at the foot of the mountain — while Shimeigatake Station was renamed Cable Hiei. On 10 March 2002 the lower station was renamed once more, from Cable Yaseyūen to its present name, Cable Yase.

Today the Eizan Cable runs at intervals of twenty to thirty minutes on weekdays, with a journey time of about nine minutes, and adds services at weekends, on holidays, and in busy periods. Since December 2006 it has closed for the winter, together with the Eizan Ropeway, from early December until around the spring equinox; it makes a special exception over the New Year, operating on 1–3 January for worshippers visiting Enryaku-ji. The two passenger cars in service, numbered 1 and 2, were built in 1987 by Mukogawa Sharyō, reusing the running gear of earlier vehicles whose origins went back to Swiss-built chassis paired with Japanese-made car bodies.

• 19228 November: a railway licence is granted for the route between Aoradani and Shimeigatake in Yase village, Atago District.
• 192520 December: the Kyoto Electric Light Company (Kyōto Dentō) opens the cable line of its Eizan Electric Railway division, from Saitōbashi (now Cable Yase) to Shimeigatake (now Cable Hiei).
• 19422 March: the line is separated from Kyōto Dentō and transferred to the newly formed Keifuku Electric Railroad (authorised 10 February).
• 1944The line is suspended during the Pacific War.
• 1946Service is resumed after the end of the war.
• 19651 August: Saitōbashi Station is renamed Cable Yaseyūen and Shimeigatake Station is renamed Cable Hiei.
• 200210 March: Cable Yaseyūen Station is renamed Cable Yase, its present name.