Kowada

Departure data for this station is not available on this site.

Kowada Station opened on 30 December 1936 as the temporary northern terminus of the privately built Sanshin Railway, extending into the steep gorges along the Tenryū River in present-day Tenryū-ku, Hamamatsu. The Sanshin line was nationalised on 1 August 1943 and folded into the Iida Line. Freight handling ceased in December 1971 and the station has been unstaffed since February 1984. JR Central took over at the 1987 privatisation of JNR, and in 2008 one of the original pair of opposed side platforms was decommissioned, leaving a single side platform served by a wooden building.

Kowada is among Japan's best-known hikyō or "remote" stations: there is no road access, and the nearest road, towards the Sakuma Dam, is a 40-to-50-minute walk. The hamlet by the station is now deserted, and the nearest inhabited houses are those of the Shiozawa district, a further 40-to-50-minute climb up a steep mountain path. A widely cited hikyō station ranking places Kowada third in the country.