History
Ashigara Station opened on 1 April 1927 at Ōgi-chō, Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, as a station on the Odakyū Odawara Line, originally serving as a stop for the "Direct" service (each-station services then ran only between Shinjuku and Inadanobu, today's Mukōgaoka-Yūen). When the all-line each-station service began in June 1945 the "Direct" was abolished and Ashigara became an each-station stop, then a Junkyū (semi-express) stop from 1 October 1946 and a Commuter Junkyū stop from 25 March 1960; Commuter Junkyū ended in 1964. Some limited-express trains began stopping from 22 March 1983. Freight handling — and the Japan Monopoly Corporation siding that served the nearby factory — ended on 31 January 1984. After the 15 March 2008 timetable revision removed Junkyū services west of Shin-Matsuda, the station lost its Junkyū stop, and the 17 March 2018 revision similarly removed it from the Kyūkō stopping pattern (because Kyūkō trains between Odawara and Hon-Atsugi now switch from each-station service at Shin-Matsuda). The station was rebuilt during 2008. The station number OH 46 was assigned in January 2014.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
When the station opened in 1927 it had been intended to take the name of the nearby place "Tako" (多古), but the syllables were felt to ring badly and "Ashigara" — both the name of the surrounding village (Ashigara-shimo District, Ashigara Village) and a traditional poetic epithet (makurakotoba) for Hakone — was adopted instead.