History
Kokawa Station opened on 25 November 1900 in what is now Kinokawa, Wakayama Prefecture, when the Kiwa Railway completed its connection to Goyo via Hashimoto. A temporary stop on the same site had operated since 24 August 1900 during the line's incremental extension. Local opposition over road realignments and school proximity had delayed siting by 67 days of negotiation. The line was sold to the Kansai Railway on 27 August 1904 and nationalised on 1 October 1907, becoming part of the Wakayama Line under the 1909 line-naming reforms. Freight handling ended on 1 October 1982, JNR's 1 April 1987 privatisation passed the station to JR West, ICOCA arrived on 14 March 2020, and full destaffing followed on 1 June 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Kokawa appears in the 49th verse of the 1900 Tetsudō Shōka (Railway Song) Volume 5, written by Ōwada Takeki — at the time of composition the line to Hashimoto was still incomplete, so the lyrics jump abruptly from Hashimoto to Kokawa.