History
The station opened on 1 June 1908 as Hitoyoshi by the Imperial Railway Agency, the southern terminus of the line extended from Yatsushiro. On 21 November 1909 the Hitoyoshi – Yoshimatsu section completed the Hisatsu route through the mountains to Kagoshima. The Yunomae Line opened on 30 March 1924 with Hitoyoshi as its starting point. After privatisation in 1987 the Yunomae Line was transferred to the third-sector Kuma River Railroad on 1 October 1989, leaving Hitoyoshi as a joint-use station; the Kuma River Railroad side was renamed Hitoyoshi-Onsen on 1 April 2009 to coincide with the introduction of the SL Hitoyoshi tourist train. The Yunomae Line side carries a naming-rights sponsorship name "Shinjō Bunka no Mori Hitoyoshi-Onsen" and the station number is 1.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-10.
Notes
The station's name change to Hitoyoshi-Onsen took effect on 1 April 2009 in connection with the introduction of the SL Hitoyoshi steam-tour train, which launched on 25 April 2009 using the 1922-built 8620-class locomotive 58654 — the same day the predecessor "SL Asobōy" ran its final service.