Watarase Keikoku Railway (Tochigi Section)

About the Tochigi Section

The Watarase Keikoku Railway (Tochigi Section) comprises 11 Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (structures) at Ashio-machi, Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture: stations and bridges of the old Ashio Railway, opened from 1912 to 1914, all registered 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.

Eleven Structures

The Second Watarase River Bridge, 95 metres long, is the longest bridge of the Ashio Railway; the Agency for Cultural Affairs values it as a rare Japanese-made Cooper truss. Entering Ashio, the line crosses the Arikoshizawa Bridge among old mining company houses, the Tsudo Bridge over the entrance to the Tsudo ore mill, and the Shibukawa Bridge near where the mine is said to have begun (Agency for Cultural Affairs, Watarase Keikoku Railway).

Tsudo Station, gateway to the centre of Ashio, has half-timber-style gables from its 1936 alteration. Ashio Station, at the heart of the mine and one of the line's largest, keeps five registered parts: the building and up platform, the gravel-surfaced down platform, a red-brick store for lamp oil, a parcel store and a goods shed. The First Matsukigawa Bridge of 1914 rests on reused British wrought-iron trestles (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. Tsudo Station serves the Ashio Copper Mine tourist site and the Ashio History Museum, and the Furukawa Kakemizu Club stands near Ashio Station. The company's pamphlet gives the time after each station at which each structure comes into view. Do not enter the tracks; view it from the train, the station or nearby roads.

All are at Ashio-machi, Nikko City. The Kasamatsu Tunnel on the prefectural border and the 26 structures in Kiryu and Midori, Gunma, are covered on the group page Watarase Keikoku Railway (Gunma Section) and in their own articles.