History
Kotsunagi Station traces its origin to a 31 December 1904 steam-locomotive watering stop opened by Nippon Railway. The site was nationalised in 1906 as a government watering and coaling halt and elevated to a full station on 21 September 1909. Freight handling ended in October 1962, and the station became simple-consignment in February 1982. The station was absorbed into JR East on 1 April 1987 and transferred to the third-sector Iwate Ginga Railway on 1 December 2002, when the Tohoku Shinkansen reached Hachinohe. Consignment ticketing was discontinued in 2017, leaving the station completely unstaffed.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
The station's waiting-room "life note" inspired Makoto Itakura's 2005 film Machiaishitsu, and the building features in the film.