History
Hōshakuji Station opened on 21 October 1899 as a Nippon Railway station, was nationalised in 1906, and was assigned to the Tōhoku Main Line in 1909. The Karasuyama Line branch was extended from here to Karasuyama on 15 April 1923. JNR's 1 April 1987 privatisation transferred it to JR East and JR Freight, with Suica accepted from 16 October 2004 and freight train operations discontinued on 18 March 2006. The Kengo Kuma-designed elevated station building entered service on 28 October 2007 and won the Brunel Award commendation for architecture on 30 September 2008. Following the March 2025 unstaffing of Karasuyama, Hōshakuji is now the only attended station on the Karasuyama Line.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
On 10 July 1945 a U.S. Navy F6F-5 carrier-borne fighter strafed alighting passengers at Hōshakuji, killing one of four wounded immediately and three more of five additional wounded by that evening.