History
Tomobe Station opened on 1 July 1895 as a Mito Railway station, six years after the line's eastern end. The Tsuchiura Branch from Tsuchiura connected on 4 November 1895, finally putting the station on the through route between Tokyo and Mito. The route was nationalised in 1906 and absorbed into the Jōban Line in 1909. Limited-express "Hitachi" stops began on 2 October 1978. JNR privatisation on 1 April 1987 transferred operation to JR East and JR Freight. A new elevated station building entered service on 4 March 2007, when the departure melody changed to a Kyu Sakamoto song.
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
Tomobe takes its name from "Minami-Tomobe," a tiny hamlet within Shishidō Town when the station opened; the name eventually overtook Shishidō and became that of the merged 1955 municipality.