Sakamoto Cable

Plans for a cable railway up Mount Hiei reached back well before the line was built. In 1912 a company called Hiei Tozan Keiben Dengi Tetsudō was granted a funicular licence between Sakamoto village and the Konpon-chūdō hall, but the concession lapsed the following year. Interest revived in the 1920s as pilgrimage to Enryaku-ji and summer recreation on the mountain grew: in 1919 the local Ōtsu Electric Tramway (the present Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line) and rival ventures backed by influential figures in Kyoto and Osaka filed competing applications.

In November 1922 three of these promoters combined to apply jointly as the Hiei Tozan Railway Company. A railway licence was granted on 4 April 1924, and the company was formally established in October of that year. Enryaku-ji attached strict conditions to the project: rather than sell land it would only lease the ground for the track and stations, the summit station had to stand away from the temple's sacred precincts, and the line was to be routed so that it could not be seen from afar. On 27 December 1926 the firm changed its name to Hieizan Railway.

The line opened on 15 March 1927, running from Sakamoto Station (today's Cable Sakamoto) to Eizan-chūdō Station (today's Cable Enryakuji). Promotional handbills billed it as a national wonder by which one could ascend from Sakamoto to the heart of Mount Hiei in eleven minutes, and by around 1929 English-language guides were being produced, showing that foreign as well as domestic visitors were anticipated. The masonry station buildings at both ends, which survive from the 1927 opening, were later registered as national Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in 1997.

The Pacific War interrupted the line. In March 1945 passenger services were suspended as a non-essential line, and in May the entire facility was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy, which stripped the cars to carry materials and Ohka special-attack aircraft up to a catapult being built near the summit station. The war ended before the catapult was ever used, and it was demolished afterwards. The cable cars were repaired for passenger use and the line reopened in August 1946.

In the postwar decades the line was steadily modernised. An intermediate station, Motateyama (originally Motateyama Amusement Park Station), opened in 1949, and all-steel second-generation cars were introduced in 1958. The stations were renamed in 1974, when Sakamoto became Cable Sakamoto and Eizan-chūdō became Cable Enryakuji, and a second intermediate stop, Hōraioka, opened in 1984. A major renewal beginning in September 1992 replaced the winding gear and rolling stock; after a full closure from June 1993 the rebuilt line reopened on 24 July 1993 with third-generation cars named En (縁, “bond”) and Fuku (福, “fortune”).

The line accepted Surutto KANSAI cards from April 2003. In 2006 the cars were converted to draw their lighting and headlight power from onboard storage batteries, and by the end of April 2007 the ageing overhead wire — in place since the 1927 opening — had been removed except within the two terminal stations, where the batteries are recharged; one redundant wire pole is preserved as a monument beside Cable Sakamoto Station. The operating company, once a subsidiary of Keifuku Electric Railroad, passed to Keihan Electric Railway when Keifuku transferred all its shares in 1992, and Hieizan Railway is today a consolidated subsidiary of Keihan Holdings. The line remains significant as the only year-round public route up Mount Hiei: in the depths of winter, when the Eizan Cable and Ropeway and the drive-bus over the Hieizan Driveway all suspend operations, the Sakamoto Cable is the sole public-transport approach to the summit.

• 19127 May: Hiei Tozan Keiben Dengi Tetsudō is granted a funicular licence between Sakamoto village and the Konpon-chūdō; it lapses the following year.
• 1922November: three promoters combine to apply jointly as the Hiei Tozan Railway Company.
• 19244 April: a railway licence is granted to Hiei Tozan Railway; the company is established in October.
• 192627 December: the company is renamed Hieizan Railway.
• 192715 March: the line opens between Sakamoto (now Cable Sakamoto) and Eizan-chūdō (now Cable Enryakuji).
• 194519 March: passenger services are suspended as a non-essential line; in May the line is requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy and its cars converted to haul materials and Ohka aircraft to a summit catapult.
• 19467 August: the line reopens after the repaired cars are returned to passenger use.
• 1949The intermediate station Motateyama (then Motateyama Amusement Park Station) opens.
• 1958All-steel second-generation cars replace the original rolling stock.
• 197415 January: stations are renamed — Sakamoto to Cable Sakamoto, Motateyama Amusement Park to Motateyama, and Eizan-chūdō to Cable Enryakuji.
• 198426 April: Hōraioka Station opens as a second intermediate stop.
• 1992September: a major renewal of the winding gear and rolling stock begins.
• 1993After a full closure from 1 June, the renewed line reopens on 24 July with third-generation cars named En and Fuku.
• 20031 April: the line begins accepting Surutto KANSAI cards.
• 2006The cars' lighting and headlight power is switched to onboard storage batteries.
• 2007By the end of April the overhead wire, in place since 1927, is removed except within the two terminal stations where the batteries are recharged.