History
Horikawa Station opened on 26 August 1913 as a station on the Kumamoto Electric Railway Kikuchi Line, in Hakkesui-no-tani 1-chōme, Kita-ku, Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture — station number KD12. Freight handling ended on 1 August 1979, railway parcel handling on 1 February 1984, and on-site ticket issuing on 1 May 1985 (replaced by an integer-ticket onboard payment system). With the introduction of an electronic-symbol automatic block system on 11 April 1988 the station became unstaffed, with only ticket-office tasks contracted to Kumamoto Electric Railway Kankō. On 1 April 2015 the Kumamoto Area Promotion IC card ('Kumamon no IC CARD') was supported, and on 1 October 2019 station numbering was introduced.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The station name comes from the Horikawa, an Edo-period channel cut from the Shira River to the Tsuboi River that once flowed nearby. Horikawa is unusual among Kumamoto Electric Railway stations in having a still-occupied station building — although it has no railway staff, a Kumamoto Dentetsu Kankō employee is stationed inside to manage the station and sell commuter passes (open weekdays 07:30 - 18:00, Saturdays 07:30 - 12:00, closed Sundays/holidays). The platform's island layout was once used for short-turning Fujisaki-gū-mae - Horikawa services and for overnight stabling when the Miyoshi - Kikuchi section still existed in the early 1980s; the points still allow short-turning towards Kita-Kumamoto from the Mihatsu-bound side of platform 1. The IC card reader (entry only) is on the platform rather than at the gate, to suit users entering from the rear of the station.