The former Kayano Station site on the former Horonai Line, my first visit on 2026·R8.8.29. The monument's face is engraved with 「Horonai Line, former Kayano Station site, station opened September 11, Taisho 2」, together with an illustration of the old station building and the signature T.sugita. The back of the monument also reads: 「The Horonai Line, completed in Meiji 15 as Hokkaido's first railway, has fulfilled a major mission up to the present while serving as a cornerstone in building Hokkaido. However, under the Act on Special Measures to Promote the Management Rehabilitation of Japanese National Railways, it was abolished on July 12, Showa 62, bringing its history to an end. We erect this monument at the former Kayano Station site to pass on to future generations the glorious Horonai Line, built with the blood and sweat of many predecessors and protected and nurtured for 104 years. December Showa 63, Mikasa Mayor Kazuo Noto」. Looking up "Kayano Station" on Wikipedia, apparently the Horonai railway had been here since 1882·M15, but there was no station. This Kayano district has a history as a farming area: 「Farmland development progressed early, and it supplied agricultural produce to what are now Mikasa City and Iwamizawa City. Therefore, around 1898·M31, local volunteers began campaigning for a station. In 1910·M43, Mikasayama Village (at the time) began petitioning for the station's opening; the petition was accepted in 1912·M45.6, and construction began in November that year. In 1914·T3, the year after the station opened, Nihon Seima's Kayano factory began operating nearby, and the station flourished until the factory closed in the late Taisho era. There is also a theory that the station opened because of this factory's establishment. Station use temporarily declined after the factory closed but recovered as the surrounding population increased.」 (summary). It opened on 1913·T2.9.11 as Kayano Station, a general station on the Railway Agency's Horonai Line. On 1981·S56.5.25, freight and baggage handling ceased, and it became unstaffed. From 1984·S59.2.1, it became a station operated under a simple outsourcing arrangement. Although it was subsequently transferred to JR Hokkaido through the breakup and privatization of Japanese National Railways on 1987·S62.4.1, it closed when the entire Horonai Line was abolished on 7.13 that same year. At the time of closure, Kayano Station was unstaffed, with 1 side platform and 1 track, but apparently it once had tracks on both sides of an island platform, allowing trains to pass each other.

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