History
Kyōbate Station opened on 11 May 1898 as the temporary northern terminus of the Nara Railway's first extension toward Sakurai, taking its name from its position at the southern edge of the ancient Heijō-kyō capital. The line was extended to Nara on 14 October 1899, the railway was absorbed into Kansai Railway in 1905, and the route was nationalised in 1907, becoming the Sakurai Line in 1909. The original 1898 wooden station building was transferred to Nara City in 2017 and restored over three phases between 2018 and 2019, reopening with a waiting room, café, and tourist information desk.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
From 1919 to 1951 a Nara Anzen aerial ropeway carried frozen tofu (kōya-dōfu), charcoal, vegetables, and timber from Ogura district directly to a loading station next to Kyōbate's platforms.