Wakasa Railway Inaba-Funaoka Station Building and Platform

Passengers and Parcels Under One Roof

Wakasa Railway Inaba-Funaoka Station Building and Platform (若桜鉄道因幡船岡駅本屋及びプラットホーム, Inaba-Funaoka-eki) is a single-storey timber station building of 1929 with a 97-metre platform in Funaoka, Yazu Town, Tottori Prefecture, registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 July 2008.

The station opened in January 1930 with the first section of the Wakasa Line, between Kōge and Hayabusa, and lies 2 kilometres west of Hayabusa. Unusually for this line, its owner is the Wakasa Railway Company itself.

The building measures 19 metres by 4.6 metres, 93 square metres in all, under a gabled sheet-metal roof. The eastern half is the waiting room and the western half the office and other rooms. Along the north side runs the platform, built in one piece with the building and faced with three courses of coursed granite.

Why It Was Registered

The registration cites its contribution to the historic landscape. Building and platform form one continuous structure, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs singles out the parcels shed attached along the east end of the building. According to the railway, the shed is taller than the building and pushes out over the platform.

In its early years the Wakasa Line carried timber and goods as well as people. A waiting room and a goods shed sharing one building sum up what a wayside station did in that era.

What to Look For

According to the railway, the building was for a time used as a sewing workshop while also serving as the station, and parts of it were altered as a result. Even so, the waiting room keeps much of its original fitting-out, including a U-shaped bench, and generous windows keep it bright.

Out on the platform, look at the height of the parcels shed against the low passenger roof. Two rooflines, one for people and one for freight, in a single building: no other station on the line has this.

Visiting

Wakasa Railway Inaba-Funaoka Station Building and Platform is a working station, so the waiting room and platform are open as for any passenger. Staff areas and the track are off limits. About 550 metres northwest of the station, Hatto River Bridge No. 1, the longest bridge on the line, carries the track over the river.

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