History
Sakai Station opened on 15 May 1888 with the Hanseki Railway, in present-day Sakai City, Osaka, originally slightly north of the present site near the old Sakai port. The opening name was sometimes rendered as Azumabashi after a nearby crossroads. Joint use with Nankai Railway began on 1 October 1897, and Nankai took sole control through merger the following year. After the opening of Ryūjin Station in 1912 the station fell out of favour for express services and was eventually demoted to a freight-only role following heavy damage in the 1945 air raid. In 1955 it was reunified with the closed Ryūjin Station at a relocated site, and in May 1985 the present elevated station was completed slightly south of the original 1888 site near the Azumabashi intersection.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
The 60th verse of the 1900 Tetsudō Shōka, in its Kansai-Sangū-Nankai volume, sings of the station and its shore scenery as the railway approached its southern destinations.