History
Hinagu Onsen Station opened on 15 July 1923 as Hinagu Station, the then-terminus of the Ministry of Railways Hisatsu Line. The route was redesignated as the Kagoshima Main Line on 17 October 1927. Freight handling ended on 1 October 1962, and contract operation under Yatsushiro Station took over on 1 September 1970 when CTC was introduced. Baggage handling was abolished on 1 February 1984. On 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR Kyushu, and on 13 March 2004, with the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen, the section was transferred to the third-sector Hisatsu Orange Railway and the station was renamed Hinagu Onsen. Station numbering on 1 October 2019 made it OR03, and a new naming-rights subtitle adopted on 15 March 2025 referenced a local mascot.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The current wooden station building dates from the 1923 opening and has been kept in near-original condition with almost no major refurbishment, making it the oldest station building on the Hisatsu Orange Railway.