Motoyama (Kagawa · JR Shikoku)

Weekday departures: 44/day · Sat & holiday departures: 44/day

First / last train (weekday): 6:04 / 23:42

Busiest hour: 18:00–19:00 (4)

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0:00 ─ 23:00

Counts are departures in the timetable data shown on our live map.

• Yosan Line: Hijidai ⇄ Kan'onji

Motoyama opened on 20 December 1913 on the line that became the JNR Yosan Line. At the planning stage the station was to be placed near Motoyama-ji Temple in the former Motoyama village hamlet of Jike, but local opposition pushed the alignment west and the station was built in Okamoto in the former Kuwayama village instead, prompting a contemporary dispute over the station name. Freight handling ended on 1 June 1970. The station became a contracted-service station on 8 November 1971 and was downgraded to an unstaffed halt with parcel handling withdrawn on 1 February 1984. On 15 February 1987 it was restaffed as a direct-management station with a kiosk attached, and passed to JR Shikoku at privatisation on 1 April 1987. It was destaffed again on 1 October 2010.

Heavy rain repeatedly closed the line through here, earning Motoyama the nickname "Mizu no Motoyama" (Motoyama of the Waters); after the 1965 floods the track and platforms were raised. The point switches here use elastic-rail turnouts, the first of their kind to be installed on a Japanese conventional line, and they have been traversed at 160 km/h in service.