[Hankyu Kyoto Line] Minase Station: Enjoy it 120% - Shinkansen trains pass right beside you!

Minase Station on the Hankyu Kyoto Line is located in Shimamoto Town, Mishima District, Osaka Prefecture.

It is the northernmost station in Osaka Prefecture on the Hankyu Kyoto Line.
The next station, Oyamazaki, is in Kyoto Prefecture.

There are two railway stations in Shimamoto Town.
This station and the other is JR Kyoto Line's Shimamoto Station, which is an 8-minute walk from here.

Shimamoto Station is a new station that opened in 2008; until then, this station was the only one in Shimamoto Town.

It is extremely fitting for a station to be located here.
This is because there was a station here long ago in the Nara period.

Huh? A station in the Nara period?
Yes. There was a station in the Nara period. Though, naturally, it was not a railway station.
A 'station' (umaya) was a facility established at regular intervals along main roads in ancient times, used for changing horses, resting, or staying overnight.

If you head west along the Nanko Road that crosses the Kyoto Line, you will reach the JR Shimamoto Station.

The Shoku Nihongi records that the Ohara Station was established in the 4th year of Wado, or 711 AD, and this is thought to be the later Sakurai Station.
That place became very famous as the site where the father and son Kusunoki Masashige and Masatsura parted ways.

In 1336, Kusunoki Masashige, heading to the Battle of Minatogawa, was prepared for death.
At Sakurai Station, he instructed his son Masatsura to 'destroy the enemies of the Imperial Court someday' and sent him back to Kawachi Province.

This is the most famous scene in the Taiheiki, known as the 'Parting at Sakurai,' and it was a story that was always included in pre-war textbooks.
From the early Meiji period until the war, the popularity of Kusunoki Masashige, who was deeply loyal to the Emperor, was extraordinary.

The site of Sakurai Station in front of Shimamoto Station is now a quiet park with few people, but it is a place that tells of how immense the pre-war popularity of Kusunoki Masashige was, as a distinguished group of people including Emperor Meiji, Togo Heihachiro, Nogi Maresuke, Konoe Fumimaro, and for some reason Harry Parkes, left poems and calligraphy there.
It is a very mysterious space, that place.

On the east side of the station, between it and National Route 171, there is a large bus rotary where the Hankyu Bus Wakayamadai Line and others stop.
There is a shopping street called Shimamoto Center under the elevated tracks. It's nice.

On the west side, the rotary is small, but it gives the impression of having more foot traffic than the east side.

The daily number of passengers at this station is about 5,000.

The platforms are side-type. On this day, there are many people on the platform for the Awaji direction due to the impact of a personal injury accident.

Now, this station was opened in 1939 (Showa 14) by the Keihan Electric Railway, but its original name was Sakurai-no-eki Station.
At that time, it was bustling with people visiting the site of Sakurai Station, so it was a fitting name.

By the way, the current Kamimaki Station had opened five years earlier, but its original name was 'Kamimaki-Sakurai-no-eki Station.' This was because it was the station closest to the site of Sakurai Station.
With the opening of Sakurai-no-eki Station, Kamimaki-Sakurai-no-eki Station was renamed Kamimaki Station.
It's confusing, isn't it?

After the war, as the popularity of Kusunoki Masashige settled down, the station was renamed Minase Station in 1948 (Showa 23).

Minase refers to a river where the water sinks and appears to have dried up, but the Minase River, which flows about 1 kilometer north of this station, has water that flows normally.

Emperor Go-Toba, who instigated the Jokyu War, was very fond of the detached palace located here.
The site of that detached palace is now the Minase Jingu Shrine.

Now, in 1963, during the approximately six months that the Kyoto Line was undergoing elevated construction, Hankyu borrowed the tracks of the Tokaido Shinkansen, which was just about to open, and operated with temporary platforms, just like at Kamimaki and Oyamazaki.
This is a very famous episode where Hankyu trains ran on Shinkansen tracks.

Even after the elevated construction was completed, the Shinkansen tracks run right alongside this station at the same height, and you can experience their passing with great impact.

It's amazing.
I can't think of any word other than amazing.