History
Kurashiki Station opened on 25 April 1891 as part of the Sanyō Railway between Okayama and Kurashiki, and it became a junction in 1925 when the Hakubi Line opened northward to Sōja and beyond. The Sanyō Railway was nationalised in 1906, and the Hakubi Line was added to the line names two decades later. When the Sanyō Shinkansen was planned in the 1970s, the high-speed line bypassed Kurashiki in favour of Shin-Kurashiki Station, opened in 1975. The current elevated station building dates from 1981, and the attached station tower was reduced from eight storeys to two during a 2013–2015 renovation.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
When the Sanyō Shinkansen was routed past Kurashiki to a separate station, the JR system later granted a fare-rule exception letting passengers detour to Okayama and back without paying for the extra distance.