Wakasa Railway Hatto Station Building

Midway Down the Line

Wakasa Railway Hatto Station Building (若桜鉄道八東駅本屋, Hattō-eki) is a single-storey timber station building in Saidai, Yazu Town, Tottori Prefecture, built in 1930 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 July 2008.

The 1930 date comes from the Agency for Cultural Affairs database; the railway's own guide to its registered properties gives 1929, so the sources differ by a year.

It measures 12 metres by 4.6 metres, with a floor area of 79 square metres. The waiting room is on the east side and the office on the west, with a staff rest room projecting from the west end of the south face. A small gabled porch marks the entrance.

Why It Was Registered

The registration cites its contribution to the historic landscape. Waiting room beside office is the standard plan for intermediate stations on the Wakasa Line. Hattō is different in one respect: the platform does not run along the front of the building. It lies a short way off to the northwest, linked by a ramp at its east end, unlike Tampi or Inaba-Funaoka where building and platform are one piece. The platform is registered separately.

When the station opened, a small parcels shed stood at the west end of the building. A later extension swallowed it, so the freight era survives inside the building in altered form.

What to Look For

From the station forecourt, the gabled porch gives Wakasa Railway Hatto Station Building its face. Follow the wall westward and you reach the extension that took in the old parcels shed.

Hattō sits roughly halfway between Kōge and Wakasa. According to the railway, a goods van, WAFU 35597, is preserved here to recall the old freight siding, and in March 2020 a passing loop was brought into use. Walk around the building and you can see how the station has gained and lost functions over the decades.

Visiting

This is a working station building, and the waiting room is open as it would be to any passenger. The office and staff areas are not. The track is off limits.

Take photographs without getting in the way of passengers or trains. Travel to the station and tickets are covered on the Wakasa Railway page.