Kominato Railway Kazusa Yamada Station Building

Smaller Than the State Railways' Smallest

The Kominato Railway Kazusa Yamada Station Building (小湊鉄道上総山田駅本屋) is a single-storey timber station built around 1925 in the Isogaya district of Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture; altered in 1932, 1965 and 1985, it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on May 2, 2017.

Kazusa Yamada lies about 3 kilometers south of Ama-Ariki, and like Ama-Ariki it follows the standard design the Kominato Railway used when the line opened.

Nine Meters by Four and a Half

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Kominato Railway Kazusa Yamada Station Building is single-storey timber with a tiled roof and a building area of 64 square meters. Its basic office-and-waiting-room block measures 9 meters by 4.5 meters.

The agency notes that this is more compact than even the smallest standard station drawn up by the contemporary state railways. A small private company took the national template and trimmed it to what it could afford.

Three later rounds of work, in 1932, 1965 and 1985, added to that core. Trying to spot where the original box ends and the additions begin is part of the fun.

Seeing It

The Kominato Railway Kazusa Yamada Station Building remains in use, and the waiting room is open to passengers. From the platform, the 9-meter frontage of the original block is easy to take in at a glance.

The station is unstaffed but has a ticket machine. The registered First and Second Shibanoshita bridges lie in the fields just to the south. As of September 25, 2026, trains between Goi and Kazusa Ushiku were running normally.