History
Karasaki Station opened on 20 July 1974 with the full opening of the Japanese National Railway's Kosei Line between Yamashina and Ōmi-Shiotsu. Although construction plans had used the working name Shin-Shigasato, the final name was changed to Karasaki at local request because the site lies outside Shigasato proper and could be confused with nearby Shiga Town, while Karasaki itself is celebrated as one of the Eight Views of Ōmi. The station became part of JR West on 1 April 1987 with the privatisation of JNR. Automatic ticket gates were installed in September 1998, ICOCA support followed in November 2003, and barrier-free works were completed in March 2008. Station numbering JR-B28 was introduced in March 2018, and the Midori-no-Madoguchi staffed window closed in October 2024.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Though the Kosei Line itself only opened in 1974, the name Karasaki had already appeared in the 1900 Japanese geography song Tetsudō Shōka thanks to its fame as the site of the Karasaki Night Rain, one of the classic Eight Views of Ōmi.