History
Ōtani Station (OT34) is on the Keihan Keishin Line in Ōtani-chō, Ōtsu, Shiga, at elevation 159 m — the highest point on any Keihan station including the funicular line. It opened on 15 August 1912 with the Keishin Electric Tramway's Sanjō-Ōhashi–Fudanotsuji section, became part of Keihan Electric Railway on the company merger of 1 February 1925, and was the transfer point with the former JGR Tōkaidō Main Line Ōtani Station that closed in 1921. The station was relocated due to National Highway works on 7 April 1932, fell under Keihanshin Express Electric Railway on 1 October 1943 and reverted to Keihan on 1 December 1949. It was moved 71 m toward Biwako-Hamaōtsu on 16 November 1996, and Surutto KANSAI faregates were installed on 1 March 2002.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-24.
Notes
Ōtani's platforms sit on a 40-permille gradient — the steepest of any ordinary railway or tramway in Japan outside the mountain railways — so the benches on the platform have legs of different lengths on either side to compensate. When Shohei Ohtani (sharing the kanji) won the AL MVP in 2021, Keihan's official Twitter feed posted a photo of these uneven-legged benches as a congratulatory "things on the rise" gag.