History
Ichinokawa opened on 10 March 1960 as an unstaffed additional stop on the existing Hōhi Main Line between Uchinomaki and Akamizu, built as a petitioned station with the entire 12.8 million-yen cost borne by the local community. JR Kyushu took control with the 1 April 1987 privatisation. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes damaged track on the Higo-Ōzu–Bungo-Ogi section from April 2016 and the station was suspended; service from Aso east to Bungo-Ogi resumed on 9 July 2016, but the segment from Higo-Ōzu west to Aso through Ichinokawa remained closed until JR Kyushu completed repairs and reopened it on 8 August 2020, restoring through service between Aso and Kumamoto.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Ichinokawa was a citizen-funded request station from day one: when it opened in 1960, the entire 12.8 million-yen construction cost was paid by the local community rather than by Japanese National Railways.