History
Niekawa Station opened on 1 December 1909 with the inauguration of the state-owned Chūō East Line's Shiojiri to Narai section, in what is today the city of Shiojiri in Nagano Prefecture. Two years later the line was reorganised and renamed the Chūō Main Line. Freight handling ended in November 1972 and parcel handling in February 1984, and the station became unstaffed in March 1985. A new alignment from Hideshio to the station opened in September 1978, and a further realignment toward Kiso-Hirasawa followed in May 1986; the new Gongen Tunnel was built to twin-track standard but is operated as single-track. The station passed to JR Central with the 1 April 1987 privatisation of JNR.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The station sits beside the former Niekawa-juku, a Nakasendō post town, with the remains of the Niekawa barrier-station crossing just south of the platform; the wooden station building has been preserved since opening with minor alterations to match the post-town aesthetic.