Gojo (Nara)

History

Gojō opened on 25 October 1896 when Nanwa Railway ran its first trains between Kuzu (now Yoshinoguchi) and Futami (later Kawabata). On 11 April 1898 Kiwa Railway opened its line east from Hashimoto to a junction with the Nanwa line, making Gojō the meeting point of two private railways. Kansai Railway absorbed Kiwa on 27 August 1904 and Nanwa on 9 December the same year, then was itself nationalised on 1 October 1907. The line was assigned to the Wakayama Line on 12 October 1909. The Ōji-Gojō section was electrified with simple catenary on 3 March 1980, briefly making Gojō the electric-non-electric break; full electrification through to Wakayama followed on 1 October 1984. The station passed to JR West at privatisation on 1 April 1987. ICOCA was introduced for the Takada direction on 17 March 2018 and extended to the Wakayama direction on 14 March 2020. The staffed Midori-no-Madoguchi ticket counter closed on 31 August 2024.

History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.

Notes

Gojō was once intended to be the northern end of the Goshin Line, a never-completed prefectural-border crossing that would have run south to Shingū on the Kii coast; the abandoned line's masonry arch bridges still survive south-west of the station, and the original aim was to haul timber out of the Kii mountains by rail.