Sakamoto (Kumamoto)

Yatsushiro – Hitoyoshi: suspended from 4 July 2020 Check the operator for replacement transport stops and times. Full details: Hisatsu Line →

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

Sakamoto Station is on JR Kyushu's Hisatsu Line in Sakamoto-machi Sakamoto Matsuzaki, Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, at the centre of the former Sakamoto Village. The station opened on 1 June 1908 under the Imperial Railway Agency; it joined the Hitoyoshi Main Line on 12 October 1909, became part of the Kagoshima Main Line on 21 November 1909, and was renamed onto the Hisatsu Line on 17 October 1927. A 1,055-metre siding to the Jūjō Paper (later West Japan Paper) Sakamoto mill opened in 1952 and closed on 1 April 1983; freight and parcel handling ended on 1 February 1984; the station was selected as one of the Minami-Kyūshū Modernisation Industrial Heritage sites in November 2007; it was completely unstaffed from November 2008. On 4 July 2020 the station and surroundings were devastated by the Reiwa 2 July torrential rainstorm — track and platforms were later removed and the precinct buried over for use as a disaster-recovery access road. The host city Yatsushiro has the second-largest population in Kumamoto Prefecture and is famous for producing about 80% of Japan's igusa (rush) for tatami mats, as well as banpeiyu pomelos.

Yatsushiro Shrine's "Myōken-sai" festival every November is counted as one of the three great festivals of Kyushu, alongside Nagasaki Kunchi and the Hakata Gion Yamakasa.