Watarase Keikoku Railway (Gunma Section)

About the Gunma Section

The Watarase Keikoku Railway (Gunma Section) comprises 26 Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) in Kiryu and Midori, Gunma Prefecture: stations, bridges and tunnels of the old Ashio Railway, which opened in stages from 1911 to 1912. Kamikanbai Station was registered on July 8, 2008 and the other 25 on November 2, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). They form part of the line's 38 Registered Tangible Cultural Properties.

According to Watarase Keikoku Railway, the Ashio copper mine, bought by Furukawa Ichibei in 1877, grew to produce half of Japan's copper, more than horses and a horse tramway could carry, so a railway was built from Kiryu to Ashio. The Ashio Railway opened to Omama in 1911, reached Ashio in December 1912 and was completed to Ashio Honzan in 1914. Nationalised in 1918 as the Ashio Line, it has been run by Watarase Keikoku Railway since 1989.

According to Watarase Keikoku Railway, this was the first registration in Japan covering a whole line across two prefectures, and in 2016 the line's structures were selected as Civil Engineering Heritage by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers.

Twenty-Six Structures

Omama Station keeps a building rebuilt in 1941 and both platforms from its opening in 1911. Beyond it, the First, Second and Third Kanbai tunnels pierce the cliffs of the Seven Bends, a notorious stretch of the old Copper Road, and the Teburiyama Flume carries runoff over the track. Kamikanbai Station is a 1912 building with a rare wooden ticket barrier (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Watarase Keikoku Railway).

In Kurohone, Kiryu, the Fukasawa and Shiroori bridges, the Shiroori Tunnel built to Japan's first rail tunnel standard, and the Edogawa, Fudosawa and Mizunumazawa bridges follow the Kojise Gorge. In Azuma, Midori, come the Ogurogawa Bridge with girders sized to its midstream piers, the Karasawa trough girder bridge, the Konakagawa Bridge and the First and Second Godo tunnels (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Watarase Keikoku Railway).

Godo Station has four registered parts: its 1912 standard building with the line's longest platform of 134 metres, a staff rest house, the up platform and a brick store for lamp oil. Sori Station keeps both platforms with timber shelters of the early Showa period, and beyond it lie the Nagoshi Tunnel and the Yoshinosawa Flume below granite cliffs (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Watarase Keikoku Railway).

Visiting and Location

Watarase Keikoku Railway notes that all of its registered structures can be seen from the train. Stations and platforms can be seen when using them, and the company's pamphlet gives the time after each station at which each bridge and tunnel comes into view. Do not enter the tracks; view it from the train, the station or nearby roads.

The structures lie in Kurohone-cho, Kiryu City, and Omama-cho and Azuma-cho, Midori City. The Kasamatsu Tunnel on the prefectural border and the 11 structures at Ashio-machi, Nikko, Tochigi, are covered on the group page Watarase Keikoku Railway (Tochigi Section) and in their own articles.