History
Matsubase Station opened on 28 January 1895 as a station on the Kyushu Railway, which was nationalised on 1 July 1907. The first station building and a train stopped within its grounds were strafed in an air raid on 27 July 1945, killing 24 people on board. Freight handling ended on 25 October 1976 and baggage handling on 14 March 1985. With the 1 April 1987 privatisation of Japanese National Railways the station passed to JR Kyushu, and SUGOCA service began on 1 December 2012. A new elevated station building entered service on 1 October 2016 after the previous two-island, three-track layout was rebuilt as one island with two tracks. On 1 October 2023 management reverted to direct JR Kyushu operation.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The town name reads "Matsubase" rather than the usual "Matsuhashi" because the area was once a strait called "Matsuba-no-Seto"; the reading shifted into "Matsubase" before the kanji 松橋 were applied.