History
Mikawa-Kawai Station opened on 1 February 1923 as the terminus of the privately owned Hōraiji Railway, leveraging Kawai's historic role as a relay point on the Bessho Kaidō. The Sanshin Railway joined the station on 21 December 1933 and through-services to the Tenryū valley relegated it to an intermediary stop, with a contemporary house-moving operation shifting the building toward the hillside. Both the Hōraiji and Sanshin lines were nationalised on 1 August 1943 into the JNR Iida Line. From 1953 to 1958 the station served as the materials base for the Ure Dam construction. Freight ended in 1971, the station was de-staffed on 1 November 1986, and JR Central took over in April 1987.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
During the Ure Dam project, a dedicated gravel train of ten 15-tonne wagons ran from Chiyo Station in Nagano Prefecture all the way down to Mikawa-Kawai to feed the construction yard.