Shigi Line

The line was built by Osaka Electric Tramway (大阪電気軌道, abbreviated "Daiki"), the principal forerunner of today's Kintetsu. Daiki's earliest plans for reaching Mount Shigi took a quite different form: an eastern route from Fukae (the present-day Fuse) via Onji toward Shigisanguchi was first envisaged, then revised into a Fukae–Onji–Kokubu–Ōji–Kōriyama alignment connecting at Ōji, for which a tramway construction permit was secured on 28 September 1921. Daiki, however, concentrated its energies on expansion toward Ise, and improving access to the Shigi-san district remained a low priority.

After the Shigi-Ikoma Electric Railway opened its own line on the eastern side of the mountain in 1922, and rival operators including Nankai Railway applied to build their own routes from Osaka to Mount Shigi, Daiki revived its plans — this time as a short western approach from Osaka. In February 1926 it applied for a local railway between Yamamoto, Shigisanguchi and Hiraoka, branded the Takayasu Line, and obtained the construction licence on 24 January 1928. The Yamamoto–Shigisanguchi section duly opened in 1930 as the Shigi Line. The remaining planned segment from Shigisanguchi to Hiraoka — intended to link the line to the Nara Line — was never built, and its enterprise was formally abandoned on 27 August 1937.

The Shigi Line opened on 15 December 1930, on the same day as the cable line (the present Nishi-Shigi Cable Line) and the mountain-top railway of the Shigisan Electric Railway, which together carried pilgrims up to the temple. The opening of this western corridor reshaped travel to Mount Shigi: where visitors had previously reached the mountain from the east, many now switched to the Daiki Sakurai Line (later the Osaka Line), the Shigi Line and the cable car. The competition badly hurt the Shigi-Ikoma Electric Railway, which eventually entered the Daiki group to survive; it was absorbed into Kintetsu, the successor to Daiki, in 1964.

The line's name has not always been constant. On 1 July 1948 it was renamed the Higashi-Takayasu Line, and Shigisanguchi Station was simultaneously renamed Higashi-Takayasu. The original names were restored on 21 March 1957, when the line again became the Shigi Line and the station reverted to Shigisanguchi. That same year the Nishi-Shigi Cable Line reopened, and from then until the major timetable revision of 20 December 1967 the Shigi Line carried through semi-express and local trains running from Ōsaka-Uehommachi via the Osaka Line.

Through running to the Osaka Line was eventually discontinued: as Osaka Line semi-express and local trains were lengthened, they could no longer operate over the Shigi Line, which can only accept two-car trains. The line settled into its enduring role as a self-contained shuttle. Automatic train stop (ATS) came into use on 10 October 1968. Later decades brought ticketing modernisation — Surutto KANSAI and J-Through magnetic cards in 2001, and the IC cards PiTaPa and ICOCA from 1 April 2007 — while the midday service was thinned from four trains an hour to three with the timetable change of 19 March 2010.

Today the Shigi Line is worked by two-car trains shuttling back and forth along its length, roughly every 15 minutes morning and evening and about every 30 minutes during the day, with many midday services timed to connect with the cable car at Shigisanguchi. Unusually for a Kintetsu branch, it is not operated one-man: every train carries a conductor despite running in just two cars. Although weekday traffic is mainly commuters and students, weekends bring sightseers, hikers and visitors to the cemetery on Mount Shigi. The line's stiff 40‰ ruling gradient near Hattorigawa is the steepest on any of Kintetsu's ordinary (non-cable) railway lines, and through trains from Ōsaka-Uehommachi have occasionally been revived as commemorative runs, including for the line's 80th and 88th anniversaries.

• 192128 September: Osaka Electric Tramway (Daiki) obtains a tramway construction permit for an early route toward Shigisanguchi (the Fukae–Onji–Kokubu–Ōji–Kōriyama plan).
• 192619 February: Daiki applies for a local railway between Yamamoto, Shigisanguchi and Hiraoka under the name Takayasu Line.
• 192824 January: Daiki obtains the railway construction licence for the line.
• 193015 December: the line opens as the Shigi Line, Yamamoto (now Kawachi-Yamamoto)–Shigisanguchi, the same day as the Shigisan Electric Railway's cable line (now the Nishi-Shigi Cable Line) and mountain-top railway.
• 193727 August: the unbuilt Shigisanguchi–Hiraoka section, intended to link to the Nara Line, has its enterprise formally abandoned.
• 19481 July: the line is renamed the Higashi-Takayasu Line, and Shigisanguchi Station is renamed Higashi-Takayasu.
• 195721 March: the line's name is restored to Shigi Line and the station back to Shigisanguchi; in the same year the Nishi-Shigi Cable Line reopens.
• 1964The Shigi-Ikoma Electric Railway, weakened by competition from this western route, is merged into Kintetsu.
• 196720 December: with this timetable revision, through semi-express and local services from Ōsaka-Uehommachi over the Osaka Line cease (they had run since the cable line's 1957 reopening).
• 196810 October: automatic train stop (ATS) comes into use.
• 2001Magnetic Surutto KANSAI cards (1 February) and J-Through cards (14 October) become usable at all stations.
• 20071 April: the IC cards PiTaPa and ICOCA become usable at all stations.
• 201019 March: a timetable change cuts the midday frequency from four trains per hour to three; on 12 December a through train from Ōsaka-Uehommachi is run to mark the 80th anniversary of the Shigi and Nishi-Shigi Cable lines.