Jomo Electric Railway Nishi-Kiryu Station

About Nishi-Kiryu Station

Jomo Electric Railway Nishi-Kiryu Station (上毛電気鉄道西桐生駅) is the line's terminus in Miyamae-cho, Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture, whose station building and platform shelter, built for the opening in 1928, were registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Property structures on December 26, 2005. Kiryu City values it as a modern Western-style building of the early Showa era that keeps its original appearance, representative of the city's industrial heritage.

According to the Jomo Electric Railway, the station opened on November 10, 1928, and the original station building is still in use.

Two Structures

The station building is a single-storey timber building facing south onto a forecourt, with a mansard roof over the central ticket hall, a hipped roof over the waiting room to the east, gabled roofs over the offices behind, and a carriage porch at the front. It is rendered throughout, with decoration around the windows (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Kiryu City notes the brown mortar exterior, plastered interior with tiled dado, and a ventilator with ornamental glass and mortar relief in the mansard roof.

The platform shelter adjoins the station building on the west: a gabled, slate-roofed timber shelter whose trusses rest on free-standing posts, bolted together. The Agency values it as a now rare timber shelter preserving the look of a railway station of its day. Both were registered as contributing to the historic landscape of the country.

Using Nishi-Kiryu Station

Nishi-Kiryu is a working station on the Jomo Electric Railway, staffed daily from 6:45 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. It was chosen as one of the Hundred Stations of Kanto in 1998 (Jomo Electric Railway). It is about a 5-minute walk from the north exit of JR Kiryu Station; the address is 2-1-33 Miyamae-cho, Kiryu City.