History
Shimo-Gion Station (JR-B06) is a JR West Kabe Line station in Gion, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima. It opened in May 1913 as an intermediate stop on the Dainippon Kidō Hiroshima Branch (the future Kabe Line). Successive operator changes — Kabe Kidō (1919), Hiroshima Denki (1926), Hirohama Tetsudō (1931), and nationalisation as JNR (1936) — were followed by JR West in the 1987 privatisation. The station moved about 100 m north around 1943. From fiscal 2015 it became the busiest station on the Kabe Line, and a major rebuild — adding new opposed side platforms, a new west exit building and a free pedestrian concourse — was completed on 27 January 2024 with new facilities opening the next day.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
Although officially written 下祇園 in modern publications, the kanji on the station building still uses the older glyph 祗 — Shimo-Gion is one of the few stations where the building name and the timetable disagree.