History
Ōboke Station opened on 28 November 1935 as Awa-Akano Station (阿波赤野駅) when the Kōchi Line was extended north from Toyonaga to Minawa and re-designated the Dosan Line. It was renamed Ōboke Station on 1 October 1950. Operated by Japanese Government Railways and then by Japanese National Railways, the station passed to JR Shikoku on 1 April 1987 at privatisation. It became completely unstaffed on 1 October 2010. Today every Nanpū limited express from Okayama and every Shimanto limited express from Takamatsu calls here, and the tourist train "Shikoku Mannaka Sennen Monogatari" terminates at the station, which sits beside the scenic Ōboke gorge on the Yoshino River.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
After becoming unstaffed in 2010, the station appointed a wooden statue of the yōkai Konaki-jijii — said to originate in the surrounding Iya Valley — as honorary stationmaster, and a Shiba Inu named Kotarō served as deputy stationmaster from 2011 until his retirement in 2013.