History
Ishibe Station is on the Kusatsu Line, 27.6 km from the line's origin at Tsuge, in the city of Konan, Shiga Prefecture, and is operated by JR West. It opened on 15 December 1889 as the sole intermediate stop on the founding Mikumo–Kusatsu segment of the Kansai Railway. Nationalization in 1907 brought it into government railway service, and it joined the Kusatsu Line in 1909. Cargo handling ended in 1971; JR West took over in 1987. A new south building opened on 30 September 2022 as part of a station renovation.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
The wooden-arm signal used until June 1978 was displayed in the Tokyo Transportation Museum forecourt until that museum's closure.