History
Kawamura Station opened on 15 July 1953 (Shōwa 28) under Japanese National Railways. With the JNR breakup on 1 April 1987 (Shōwa 62) it transferred to JR Kyūshū, then on 1 October 1989 (Heisei 1) the Yunomae Line was converted into a third-sector railway, making Kawamura a station of the Kumagawa Railway. From 1 April 2009 (Heisei 21) it carried the naming-rights nickname "Rafting Stones Kawamura Station," and its waiting room was listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 December 2014 (Heisei 26). Service was suspended on 4 July 2020 (Reiwa 2) due to the Reiwa 2 July Torrential Rain disaster. On 19 March 2026 (Reiwa 8) a ceremony was held to mark the station's preservation as a disaster heritage site, and on 20 September 2026 the station is scheduled to be abolished — with the Yunomae Line's full reopening, a new station Sagara-Toshima will open roughly 950 m toward Hitoyoshi-Onsen near the Toshima Sugawara Shrine. Its station number is 3.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Coinciding with the 2015 launch of the sightseeing train "Den-en Symphony," a 93-year-old woman from Sagara Village was appointed honorary stationmaster, and she served as a member of the "Omotenashi Beppin-tai" hospitality unit handing out Sagara tea and other treats to riders. She passed away on 4 November 2017 at the age of 95. The station has a single short platform that accommodates only four cars, with a waiting room and a public phone on the platform but no toilet. The area around the station is farmland with scattered settlements but no shops; just east of the station the Kawabe River meets the Kuma River.