History
The station opened on 5 September 1912 when Ashio Railway extended its line from Ōmama-machi (today Ōmama) to here, taking the name Gōdo Station but written 神土駅 to avoid confusion with Kōbe Station in Hyōgo Prefecture. The section to Sawairi opened on 11 November 1912. The government leased the Ashio Railway from 13 October 1913, renamed the route the Ashio Line, and nationalised the company on 1 June 1918. Freight handling ended on 15 December 1965. Construction of Kusaki Dam forced a realignment of the line between this station and Sawairi on 27 June 1973, with Kusaki Station abolished. With JNR privatisation on 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR East. On 29 March 1989 the Ashio Line was transferred from JR East to the third-sector Watarase Keikoku Railway; the station was renamed to its present 神戸 spelling to match the local place name and was unstaffed at the same time. The station building and ancillary structures were registered as national Tangible Cultural Properties on 2 November 2009, and in 2016 the building was selected as part of the Watarase Keikoku Railway facility group recognised in the JSCE's Selected Civil Engineering Heritage.
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
Gōdo's wooden station building, registered as a Tangible Cultural Property, also houses a railway-carriage restaurant called 'Seiryū' on the disused inner face of its island platform: two cars from a former Tobu Type 1720 'Deluxe Romance Car' that ran the Limited Express Kegon on the Tōbu Nikkō Line have been parked there as the dining cars, repainted to their original livery in January 2011. The station is also a hanamomo (peach-blossom) viewing spot, and during the annual April flower festival the station forecourt is closed to private cars to make room for an event space.