History
The station opened on 1 April 1891 as Takase, the new southern terminus of the Kyushu Railway's line south from Kurume. It became a through-station on 1 July 1891 when the line was extended to Kumamoto. Operation passed to Japanese Government Railways at nationalisation on 1 July 1907 and the line through the station was incorporated into the Kagoshima Main Line on 21 November 1909. The station was renamed Tamana on 10 April 1956, and freight handling was wound down between 1984 and 1986. JR Kyushu inherited the station at privatisation on 1 April 1987. SUGOCA IC card readers were installed on 1 December 2012, and the station reverted from outsourced management to direct JR Kyushu operation on 1 October 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
When the Kyushu Shinkansen opened in March 2011, Tamana lost its long-distance role to Shin-Tamana some 3 km away, and the last surviving Ariake limited express was withdrawn after the 15 March 2014 timetable change.