History
Masuda Station opened on 1 April 1923 as Iwami-Masuda Station (石見益田駅), the western terminus of the Japan Government Railways Yamaguchi Line when it was extended from Tsuwano Station; the kuni-name 'Iwami' was prefixed because Masuda Station (later renamed Natori) on the Tōhoku Main Line was already in use. On 26 December the same year the San'in Main Line reached the station from Miho-Misumi, and it was reassigned to that line. The current station building dates from 1961, and the station was renamed Masuda on 1 October 1966. With the privatization of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987 it passed to JR West and JR Freight; freight operations were abolished on 1 April 2014. The station is the junction between the San'in Main Line and the JR West Yamaguchi Line and the operational break on the San'in Line, with no through limited-express services between Masuda and Hatabu since the 'Isokaze' was abolished in 2005.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-24.
Notes
When Masuda opened in 1923, the kanji name 益田 was already in use by Masuda Station on the Tōhoku Main Line (today's Natori Station), so the new Yamaguchi Line terminus was given the kuni-prefixed name 'Iwami-Masuda'; the prefix was dropped in 1966, nine years after the Tōhoku station had been renamed.