History
Imazato Station opened as Katae Station on 30 April 1914 with the inauguration of the Osaka Electric Tramway Nara Line. It was renamed Imazato-Katae in 1922 and Imazato in 1929. On 15 March 1937 the line through the station was double-tracked and elevated. With the 15 March 1941 merger with Sangu Express Electric Railway, the station became part of Kansai Express Railway; line-naming was reorganised at the same time, with the Nara Line section between Uehommachi and Imazato (via Fuse) being merged with the Sakurai Line to form the Osaka Line, and the Nara Line origin shifted to Fuse. With the 1 June 1944 wartime company merger, the station became part of Kinki Nippon Railway (Kintetsu). On 8 December 1956 the section was quadruple-tracked: a new up-line platform was added on the south side for the Osaka Line, and from 21 December that year the new schedule allowed Osaka Line trains (including down-bound) to begin stopping here. Commuter-pass-only automatic ticket gates entered service on 1 April 1971. PiTaPa service began on 1 April 2007. The station became completely unstaffed on 10 November 2024.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Imazato Station serves both the Osaka Line (Kintetsu D05) and the Nara Line (A05), with both designated as separate routes in user-facing information though the trackage is the Osaka Line nominally. Although Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line and Imazato-suji Line also have an Imazato Station, they are about 900 m away and not a paired transfer; the Kintetsu station is sometimes called 'Kintetsu Imazato' to distinguish, and the proper transfer to the subway is at Tsuruhashi. The original station was on a section of mixed track-and-road (併用軌道) with platforms in a staggered (千鳥) configuration around city road no. 1204 in Ikuno-ku; until late September 1922 the West River bridge was a combined rail-and-road bridge, after which it was split into separate rail and road bridges. During the war, to maintain dense headways, all Osaka Line trains skipped this station - the section between Uehommachi (now Osaka-Uehommachi) and Fuse was congested because the Nara Line and Osaka Line shared track at different overhead voltages. Postwar quadrupling completely separated the Nara and Osaka Lines, resolving the voltage issue and allowing Osaka Line trains to stop here. The station has three platforms (one relative each side and one island in the middle) serving four tracks, with six-car effective length.