History
The station opened on 1 February 1923 as Hōraiji Station on the privately built Hōraiji Railway, was briefly relabelled Hōraijiguchi in March 1929 to free the original name for a new station on the Taguchi Railway that physically lay closer to Hōrai-ji temple, then became a connecting point for the Taguchi Railway in May 1929. In August 1943 Hōraiji Railway was nationalised into the Japanese Government Railways’ Iida Line and the station was renamed Hon-Nagashino. The Taguchi Line (then Toyohashi Railroad’s) closed in 1968, leaving Hon-Nagashino a standalone Iida Line stop. Freight ended in 1971, parcel handling in 1984, and with the 1987 JNR break-up the station passed to JR Central. TOICA acceptance toward Toyohashi began on 15 March 2025.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
In the unfinished Niimi Nankichi novel "Yama no Naka," the protagonist changes here from the Iida Line onto the long-defunct Taguchi Line on his way to Shiotsu Hot Spring.