Sakai Line

The line is one of the oldest railways in the San'in area. It opened on 1 November 1902, when the section linking Sakai, Yonago and Yoriikari (御来屋) entered service together with the original Sakai, Ōshinozu, Gotō and Yonago stations. Distances were at first quoted in the old imperial units of miles and chains, the Sakai–Yonago distance being given as 10 miles 63 chains; a few days later, on 12 November 1902, the units were simplified to miles alone.

The railway's role shifted in 1908. When the Yonago–Yasugi section opened on 5 April that year, extending the through route eastward, the Yonago–Sakai portion was reclassified as a branch. The following year, on 12 October 1909, the national railway line-naming scheme was established and the branch was formally christened the Sakai Line. A series of changes followed over the next two decades: Sakai Station was relocated in December 1914, steam railcar service began in 1915, Yumigahama Station opened in 1917, and on 1 July 1919 the terminus, Sakai Station, was renamed Sakaiminato Station. On 1 April 1930 the line's distances were converted from miles to kilometres, fixing the route length at 17.9 km, and diesel-railcar operation began in 1933.

The line built up its complement of intermediate stations over the mid-twentieth century. Yogo Station opened in 1932, Wadahama in 1951, and a cluster of four — Hakurōchō, Kawasaki-guchi, Nakahama and Kamidō — opened together on 1 July 1952. In January 1935 a great fire swept the town of Sakai, and a relief train was run to help evacuate residents, an early instance of the line serving its community in a crisis.

The modern operating era brought electrification of only a fragment of the route. On 21 June 1982 the Yonago–Gotō section was electrified at 1,500 V DC, but solely to allow rolling stock to enter and leave the Gotō depot; the rest of the line remained, and remains, non-electrified. Freight reflected the line's declining goods traffic: a temporary boat-landing halt at Sakaiminato opened in 1984 to connect with Oki Islands shipping but closed in 1986, and all freight operations on the line ceased on 1 November 1986. With the dissolution and privatisation of Japanese National Railways, operation of the Sakai Line passed to JR West on 1 April 1987, and that November JR West opened five new stations of its own — Fujimi-chō, Sanbon-matsuguchi, Misaki-guchi, Takamatsu-chō and Babazaki-chō.

From the 1990s the line embraced the imagery that has since made it famous. Sakaiminato is the hometown of Mizuki Shigeru, creator of the yōkai manga "GeGeGe no Kitarō," and after the Mizuki Shigeru Road tourist street was developed in the city, JR West began running a decorated "Kitarō Train" on 19 September 1993; one-man operation was introduced on some services that same year. Further themed trains followed in waves, and on 17 March 2005 each of the line's stations was given the nickname of a yōkai character from the series. Over the years a fleet of character trains — Kitarō, Nezumi-Otoko (Rat Man), Neko-Musume (Cat Girl), Medama-Oyaji (Eyeball Father) and others — has been repainted through multiple generations, turning a quiet rural branch into a tourist attraction in its own right.

The line has continued to modernise in recent decades. In 2008 the airport's runway was extended, prompting a realignment of the track and the conversion of the former Ōshinozu Station into Yonago Airport Station. A new electronic block-control system entered use in 2015, and on 16 March 2019 the line became usable with ICOCA IC cards through JR West's first on-board card readers. From the March 2022 timetable revision, three- and four-car trains began running in one-man (driver-only) operation. Today the Sakai Line remains a modest single-track local railway, valued both as the rail link along the Yumigahama Peninsula to Sakaiminato and the Oki Islands ferries and as one of Japan's most distinctive themed lines.

• 19021 November: the Sakai–Yonago–Yoriikari section opens, with Sakai, Ōshinozu, Gotō and Yonago stations (Sakai–Yonago given as 10 miles 63 chains).
• 19085 April: with the opening of the Yonago–Yasugi section, the Yonago–Sakai portion becomes a branch line.
• 190912 October: the national railway line-naming scheme is established and the branch becomes the Sakai Line.
• 19191 July: the terminus, Sakai Station, is renamed Sakaiminato Station.
• 19301 April: line distances are converted from miles to kilometres, fixing the length at 17.9 km.
• 193317 June: diesel-railcar operation begins (steam railcar service had started in 1915).
• 193512 January: a great fire breaks out in the town of Sakai; a relief train is run to evacuate residents.
• 19521 July: Hakurōchō, Kawasaki-guchi, Nakahama and Kamidō stations open (Wadahama had opened in 1951).
• 198221 June: the Yonago–Gotō section is electrified at 1,500 V DC, solely for trains entering and leaving the Gotō depot.
• 19861 November: all freight operations on the line cease (the temporary Funatsuki boat-landing halt for Oki shipping, opened 1984, had closed earlier that year).
• 19871 April: following the dissolution and privatisation of Japanese National Railways, JR West takes over the line; on 1 November it opens five new stations of its own.
• 199319 September: the decorated 'Kitarō Train' enters service after the Mizuki Shigeru Road is developed in Sakaiminato; one-man operation begins on some trains that November.
• 200517 March: each station is given the nickname of a yōkai character from 'GeGeGe no Kitarō'.
• 200815 June: with the airport runway extended, the line is realigned; the former Ōshinozu Station becomes Yonago Airport Station and Misaki-guchi is renamed Ōshinozu-machi.
• 201916 March: the line becomes usable with ICOCA IC cards via JR West's first on-board card readers.
• 202212 March: from the timetable revision, three- and four-car trains begin one-man (driver-only) operation.