NISHIIWAKUNI STATION (IWAKUNI, YAMAGUCHI PREFECTURE)

Unmanned but not unloved

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Toshihiko Kawaguchi

By Yoshikazu Suzuki

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

"Try this one. It's really good."

"How much is it?"

The air at the morning market was filled with such exchanges as shoppers and farmers chatted in the local dialect at a morning market selling farm produce such as eggplants, watermelons and squashes as well as flowers.

The market, which usually comprises 30 or so stalls, is held every Saturday in a vacant lot next to Nishiiwakuni Station in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The station was constructed in the early Showa era (1926-1989) in the Western style that was popular at the time. The five arches of the building's facade are modeled on the five-arched Kintaikyo bridge in the city, which the people of Iwakuni take pride in as a symbol of their city. The white arches are especially eye-catching beneath the building's red roof.

A year ago, a local corporate-status nonprofit organization took over the management of the unmanned station.

The station has had a checkered life. Built as Iwakuni Station in 1929, it was later incorporated into the Sanyo Honsen line--the main transportation artery in western Japan. During World War II, nearby Marifu Station was renamed Iwakuni Station and the original Iwakuni Station became Nishiiwakuni Station, losing its status as the main gateway to the city. A reorganization of the railway lines meant the station no longer was on the Sanyo Honsen line, but part of the local Gantoku Line, which connects the city and Tokuyama--present-day Shunan.

The local line carried only a fraction of the passengers who used the Sanyo Honsen line, which ran through an area packed with factories. Relegated to the minor league, Nishiiwakuni Station became an unmanned station in 1992.

But the station still has its friends, such as 73-year-old Hikoshi Emoto, the head of a league of neighborhood community associations who launched a campaign to maintain and preserve the station.

"The building is a symbol of the area. I couldn't stand by and watch the building, which has been part of my life since childhood, be abandoned," he said.

Emoto started the Saturday morning market in 2002, and launched a petition to have the building maintained on the following year. As a result, JR West transferred ownership of the station building free of charge to the city, which has entrusted the operation of the station to the organization. Fittingly, Emoto became the first director of the organization.

As part of a makeover, the station now sells regional delicacies and has an exhibition room.

Other ideas to promote the station are on the drawing board, such as setting up a studio to study local cooking, and operating a charcoal-powered automobile.