History
Jōshū-Tomioka Station opened on 7 July 1897 as Tomioka Station on the Jōshin Line in what is now Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture, the city's representative station, 20.3 kilometres from the line's start at Takasaki. It was renamed Jōshū-Tomioka in 1921, and a second-generation building replaced the original on 24 August 1970. A third-generation building, designed by Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima of TNA, opened on 17 March 2014 after a 2011 design competition that drew 359 entries. The new structure references the brickwork of the nearby Tomioka Silk Mill, employing a Flemish-bond "Tomioka-bond" pattern in lighter-coloured brick. It won the 12th Brunel Award, a 2014 Good Design Award, the 2015 Architectural Institute of Japan Prize, and a 56th BCS Special Award.
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 current station building's brick walls use a custom "Tomioka bond" pattern adapted from the Flemish bond of the neighbouring Tomioka Silk Mill, with longer brick runs added so internal steel bracing can be hidden inside the wall.