History
Kitano Station opened on 15 October 1915 as a station on the Mitsui Electric Tramway in Imayama, Kitano-machi, Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture — station number A08. The line was extended from here to Amagi on 8 December 1921. After the Mitsui Electric Tramway merged with Kyūshū Railway on 30 June 1924, with Kyūshū Electric Tramway on 19 September 1942, and the new parent was renamed Nishi-Nippon Railway (Nishitetsu) three days later, the station became a Nishitetsu Amagi Line station. The station building was rebuilt in 1963; short-turning and overnight stabling were abolished in 2001. ICOCA-compatible nimoca service began on 18 May 2008, station numbering was introduced on 1 February 2017, and from the 23 March 2019 timetable revision the final Amagi-bound (down) service terminates here on both weekdays and weekends/holidays — the consist then immediately turns back as the final Hanabatake-bound (up) service without overnight stabling, bringing short-turning back at this station.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Kitano lies in the centre of the former Kitano-chō. The station has two facing platforms linked by an in-station level crossing and is staffed all day; signalling allows trains to depart in either direction from either track. Until nimoca was introduced, the platform opposite the station building had a temporary exit-only fare gate for season-ticket holders, open only for the train arriving around 08:25 — a concession to Mii Chūō High School students. Old records in the now-closed Kitano-chō's 'Kitano-chō-shi shi' note that, when the Mitsui Electric Tramway first opened, two now-vanished stops — Myōzenji-mae and Naka-Kitano — existed between today's Kitano and the present Koga-jaya Station (then Jūrōmaru Station).