History
Higashi-Matsue opened on 1 December 1930 as a new station inserted between Shimabashi and Naka-Matsue on the Kada Light Railway. The operator changed its name to the Kada Electric Railway on 22 December that year. The line passed to Nankai Railway by merger on 1 February 1942, and the wartime amalgamation moved it on to Kintetsu on 1 June 1944. On 1 October 1944 the Matsue Line opened between Kinokawa and this station, and the present station building came into service in September 1948. Operations on the Nankai assets reverted to the new Nankai Electric Railway on 1 June 1947. The Matsue Line began passenger services on 25 July 1950, after which Kada Line trains were rerouted via Kinokawa. On 15 February 1955 the original Kada Line section between Wakayama-shi and Kitajima was abolished and the Matsue Line was absorbed into the Kada Line, with the Kitajima–Higashi-Matsue stub redesignated the Kitajima Line; that branch closed on 1 December 1966. Station numbering (NK44-1) was introduced on 1 April 2012.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
A private siding once ran from a point just north-east of Higashi-Matsue into the Sumitomo Metal Industries Wakayama steelworks (now Nippon Steel's Kansai Steel Works, Wakayama Area) for materials traffic; it was lifted in 1984 when freight services on the whole Kada Line were withdrawn.