History
Akaoka Station opened on 1 July 2002 as an intermediate stop on the Tosa Kuroshio Railway's Asa Line between Gomen and Nahari, in what is now the city of Kōnan, Kōchi Prefecture. Unlike many of the line's smaller stops, every Asa Line train — both rapid and local — calls at Akaoka. The elevated station consists of two opposed side platforms with no station building, but the space underneath the elevated tracks houses a tourist information shop and a display of figurines of the various Asa Line mascot characters, all designed by Kōchi-born cartoonist Takashi Yanase. Akaoka's own mascot, "Akaoka Ekin-san", carries two paintbrushes — a reference to the Edo-period painter Hirose Kinzō, who lived in the town.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The station mascot Akaoka Ekin-san recalls Hirose Kinzō (Ekin), an Edo-period painter who lived in Akaoka and whose folding-screen works are still displayed annually each July at the town's "Ekin Matsuri" festival.