Ichihara Station (市原駅)
Ichihara Station, located in the Sakyo ward of Kyoto City, is a stop on the Kurama Line of the Eizan-dentetsu (Eizan Electric Railway).
Station layout
It is an aboveground station with only one platform serving one track. It's an unmanned station. Some trains arrive at and depart from this station early in the morning and late at night. There are entrances at both ends of the platform, a main entrance being located on the Demachiyanagi Station side, and going down the stone steps from the main entrance toward the village leads to a free bicycle parking area that was built by the Eizan Electric Railway. There is a level crossing (Class 4) in the station just next to the platform on the Demachiyanagi Station side, which leads to the village on the opposite side of the prefectural route. A roof covers nearly the entire platform. There is a tomb called 'Kenjo GOTO's tombstone' just next to the entrance on the Kurama Station side. Because the station is located at the top of the stone steps from the prefectural route, and since gentle stairs are the only way to get to the platform level from the track level, the accessibility to the station is seemingly limited for persons in wheelchairs; however, the station can also be reached from the prefectural route via an approach to the shrine called 'Daijingusha' located on the Demachiyanagi Station side close to the station, via the level crossing (Class 4) and a slope up to the platform.
The station used to be the end of a double track section, but it became a single track in 1939 during the Sino-Japanese War. The station remains a single track even after the line between Iwakura Station and Nikenchaya Station (Kyoto Prefecture) became a double track again in 1990. The evidence of the double track can be found in the remains of the old platform on the opposite side of the current platform, the piers of the bridge for a double track located just next to the Kurama Station side of the station, or a steel bridge beam remaining on the bridge over the approach to the 'Daijingusha' shrine located on the Demachiyanagi side of the station.
Station surroundings
The station is located at the top of the stone steps, several tens of meters from the Kyoto-hirogawara-miyama Line of the Kyoto Prefectural Route 38 (Kurama-kaido).
The station used to be the center of the village, and there are still stores and Japan Agricultural Cooperatives. Today the surrounding area is a typical residential area in the mountains where old houses are situated in the center and new houses mainly stand along the surrounding mountains.
Fudaraku-ji Temple (called Komachi-dera)
Sakyo Ward Office, Shizuichi Branch
Kyoto Municipal Ichiharano Elementary School
Kyoto City Tohokubu Seiso-kojo (Shihokubu Clean Center) (garbage and sewage plant)
Kyoto Shizuichi Ichihara Post Office
Kawashima Selcon Textiles Co., Ltd. head office, plant, Kawashima Textile School, Textile Museum
Momiji no Tonneru (Tunnel of maple leaves) on the Kurama Line, the Eizan Electric Railway between Ichihara and Ninose
Eizan-dentetsu (Eizan Electric Railway) Ichihara-Hendensho (substation adjacent to the station)
Bus stop
Ichihara-ekimae (Ichihara Station) (on the Kyoto-hirogawara-miyama Line of the Kyoto Prefectural Route 38 from the Demachiyanagi side of the station)
Kyoto Bus
Ichihara (down the steps on the Kurama side of the station, reachable via a pedestrian overpass, a residential area and the Ichihara Elementary School, and about 300 meters to the Shimogamo-shizuhara-ohara Line of the Kyoto Prefectural Route 40)
※ It is several hundred meters to the east of the intersection of the Kyoto-hirogawara-miyama Line of the Kyoto Prefectural Route 38 and the Shimogamo-shizuhara-ohara Line of the Kyoto Prefectural Route 40.
Kyoto Bus
※ Route No. 95, the 'Kitayama-birdy-go' (operated on Saturday, Sunday and holidays from the Spring Equinox Day to November 30) runs only between Ohara and Kurama.
History
December 1, 1928: The station opened under the ownership of the Kurama Electric Railway.
September 1939: The line between Nikenchaya Station (Kyoto Prefecture) and Ichihara Station became a single track for the delivery of supplies for the war.
August 1, 1942: The station came under the ownership of the Keifuku Electric Railroad as a result of amalgamation.
April 1, 1986: The station came to be owned by the Eizan Electric Railway due to the reorganization of companies.
Neighboring stations
Eizan Electric Railway
Kurama Line
Nikenchaya Station (Kyoto Prefecture) - Ichihara Station - Ninose Station