History
Kushigahama Station is a junction on the JR West Sanyō Main Line and Gantoku Line in Kume, Shūnan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, 411.5 km from the line's origin at Kobe. It opened on 11 February 1928 as a Railway Ministry station added between Kudamatsu and Tokuyama, and became a junction on 29 May 1932 when the Iwakuni-West Line (today's Gantoku Line) extended to Suō-Hanaoka. The Sanyō Main Line was rerouted via Suō-Hanaoka on 1 December 1934 (the original via-Yanai alignment was renamed the Yanai Line), then reverted to the Yanai routing on 11 October 1944, when the Suō-Hanaoka alignment was renamed the Gantoku Line. Freight ended in February 1964, parcel handling in February 1984, and the station passed to JR West on 1 April 1987 under JNR privatisation. ICOCA service began on 12 March 2022 (Sanyō Main Line only), and the station was unstaffed from 1 October 2022.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
In 1968 a southbound "Tsubame" limited express slated to pass Kushigahama at speed was misrouted into the Gantoku Line by a track-point switching error and had to be rescued back onto the main line by a relief locomotive — a rare junction-error incident on the prewar-grade Sanyō main line.