History
Tanushimaru Station opened on 24 December 1928, the same day Japanese Government Railways inaugurated the first Kurume–Chikugo-Yoshii section of the Kyūdai Main Line. Control passed to JR Kyushu when Japanese National Railways was privatised on 1 April 1987. Two side platforms serve two tracks at grade, with a siding off track 1 and a footbridge linking the platforms. The station shares its building with the local tourism association, which also operates the staffed ticket window on a kan'i itaku basis. A section of the building is shaped to resemble the head and beak of a kappa, the aquatic yōkai with which Tanushimaru is locally associated. The station is in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, 20.8 km from the line's start at Kurume.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Part of the station building is sculpted to resemble the head of a kappa — the river yōkai of local folklore — making the entrance unmistakably Tanushimaru's own.