is a

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

located in the city of

Ōtsu 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153,458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History Ōtsu is ...

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

, Japan, operated by the private railway company

Hieizan Railway The , officially the , is a Japanese funicular line in Ōtsu, Shiga. It is the only line operates. The line opened in 1927, as an eastern route to Enryaku-ji, a famous temple on Mount Hiei. This is the longest funicular line in Japan. Basic dat ...

Lines

Cable Sakamoto Station is the lower terminus of the

Sakamoto Cable The , officially the , is a Japanese funicular line in Ōtsu, Shiga. It is the only line operates. The line opened in 1927, as an eastern route to Enryaku-ji, a famous temple on Mount Hiei. This is the longest funicular line in Japan. Basic da ...

, and is 2.0 kilometers from the upper terminus of the line at . It is the longest cable-car route in Japan at 2,025 meters.

Station layout

The station consists of a single

bay platform In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. They must have a buffer stop ...

, and when it is crowded, the doors on both sides of the train may be opened to drop passengers. The track has a slope of 160 ‰, but the platform is not a slope but a gentle staircase. The station building was built in 1925 and is a two-story Western-style structure with a ticket office, a waiting room, and a crew waiting room on the first floor and offices on the second floor. The station building received protection by the national government as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017.

Adjacent stations

History

Cable Sakamoto Station was opened on March 15, 1927, as . Operation were suspended from March 19, 1945, to Augusts 7, 1946. The station was renamed January 15, 1974.

Surrounding area

Hiyoshi Taisha is a Shinto shrine located in the city of Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture Japan. This shrine is one of the Twenty-Two Shrines. Known before World War II as or Hie jinja, "Hiyoshi" is now the preferred spelling. It was also known as the . The head shr ...

References

External links

Sakamoto Cable official home page
Railway stations in Shiga Prefecture Railway stations in Japan opened in 1927 Railway stations in Ōtsu Registered Tangible Cultural Properties {{Shiga-railstation-stub