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When planning its construction, one railway line is said to have been described as Are you planning to let even monkeys ride on it?the JR Yamada Line, which runs through Iwate Prefecture . This article will introduce the Yamada Line, its history, and its current state.
What is the JR Yamada Line?
The Yamada Line is a JR East line that runs from Morioka Station in Iwate Prefecture to Miyako Station on the Pacific coast. Previously, the line continued beyond Miyako Station, but now the entire line runs through Iwate Prefecture, including the section the Yamada Line
The Yamada Line was named after the line that was built to reach Yamada Town Shimohei District The Railway Construction Act, enacted in 1892, already stipulated that the national government would build a railway from Morioka Station, passing through Miyako Station and on to Rikuchu-Yamada Station on the Pacific coast, as the current stations are called. However, because the section between Morioka Station and Miyako Station required crossing the Kuzakai Pass in the Kitakami Mountains, concrete construction plans were slow to come into being. Construction was finally decided in 1920, when Hara Takashi, a native of Iwate Prefecture who was famously known as the "commoner prime minister," became prime minister, and the section from Morioka Station to Rikuchu-Yamada Station opened between 1923 and 1935.
The section south of Rikuchu-Yamada Station was also decided to be constructed as part of the railway line from Yamada to Ofunato via Kamaishi under the revised Railway Construction Act promulgated in 1922. The section from Rikuchu-Yamada Station to Kamaishi Station was extended and opened between 1936 and 1939. The section from Morioka Station to Kamaishi Station via Miyako Station and Rikuchu-Yamada Station was the "Yamada Line" from 1939 to 2019.
The Yamada Line was described as "Are you planning to let even monkeys ride on it?"
The section between Morioka Station and Miyako Station crosses mountainous terrain, making it a sparsely populated area even during the Taisho period when the decision to build the Yamada Line was made. For this reason, when the Imperial Diet (the precursor to the current National Diet) debated whether to build the Yamada Line, an opposition lawmaker criticized Prime Minister Hara, saying, " If you lay a railway in a place like this, does the Prime Minister intend to let even monkeys ride on it ?" It is said that Prime Minister Hara responded, "If you read the railway regulations, you will see that monkeys are not allowed on trains However, no such remarks are recorded in the Imperial Diet minutes (*), so this appears to be merely a myth.
*As an aside, from the first plenary session held in 1890, the Imperial Diet of Japan not only kept minutes summarizing the remarks of attendees, but also kept stenographic records of all remarks. This is said to be one of the outstanding features of the Imperial Diet. Every word discussed at a national meeting is recorded, and even now, more than 130 years later, it is still available for anyone to view on the Internet, which is something that is not commonplace around the world.
However, a newspaper at the time reported that a certain person had made the following statement: "Nakamura Korekiyo, a member of the House of Peers, expressed extreme opposition, saying, 'The area between Morioka and Yamada is an overgrown wilderness, home to monkeys. Why spend so much money to allow monkeys on the line?'" Even if Prime Minister Hara's statement that "monkeys are not permitted on the line" is not true, is possible that the Yamada Line was described as "Are they planning to allow monkeys on the line?" The words that are said to have been made by Prime Minister Hara are likely an exaggeration of the statement made by the person mentioned above that has been spread widely.
However, once the Yamada Line opened, trains between Morioka Station and Miyako Station became extremely crowded. There's no doubt that the population along this section was sparse, both then and now, but there was a strong demand for travel between Morioka and Miyako. Also, the Kamaishi Line, which connects Hanamaki Station and Kamaishi Station in Iwate Prefecture, was not completed until 1950, after the war, so the Yamada Line played an extremely important role as a line connecting the inland of Iwate Prefecture with the Pacific coast.
The Yamada Line is frequently hit by disasters
A Yamada Line train running through a snowy landscape
Despite the important role the Yamada Line plays in Iwate Prefecture's transportation network, it has frequently been hit by natural disasters. In 1937, heavy snowfall caused service suspension, and in 1944, an avalanche washed away a railway bridge, causing a freight train to fall off. After the war, in 1947, the line was hit by a landslide caused by Typhoon Kathleen, and it took six months for the entire line to resume operation. The following year, in 1948, the line was hit again by Typhoon Ion, which washed away bridges and caused other damage, and it took six years for the entire line to resume operation . The Yamada Line's long closure is said to have increased momentum for the construction of the Kamaishi Line, mentioned earlier. After the Kamaishi Line opened and began to play a role in connecting Iwate Prefecture's inland with the Pacific coast, the importance of the Yamada Line for both passenger and freight transport declined.
In 1980, the line was suspended for nearly five months as a result of landslides caused by heavy rain. These frequent natural disasters would have a major impact on the fate of the Yamada Line.
Trains that ran on the Yamada Line
The Yamada Line, which connects the inland of Iwate Prefecture with the Pacific coast, has operated a variety of trains since its opening. Some of the most distinctive trains are the express " RikuchuGoyo a circular train that starts at Morioka Station and travels via the Tohoku Main Line, Kamaishi Line, and Yamada Line before returning to Morioka Station Sotoyama runs in the opposite direction to Goyo . There are articles explaining each train, so please take a look.
in the picture book " Shupatsu Shinko!Yamamoto Tadayoshi , published by Fukuinkan Shoten, there are parts that appear to be based on the Yamada Line's section between Morioka Station and Moichi Station, as well as the express trains that run on the Yamada Line Please see this article for more details.
The Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, caused significant damage to the Yamada Line's facilities between Miyako Station and Kamaishi Station Rather than restoring the affected section to rail service, the introduction of a BRT system was considered, which would remove the tracks and lay a dedicated road for buses to run on. However, it was ultimately decided that the line would be transferred to Sanriku Railway, On March 23, 2019, train service resumed between Miyako Station and Kamaishi Station as the Sanriku Railway Rias Line , for the first time in eight years, and this line will continue to operate separately from the remaining section of the JR Yamada Line between Morioka Station and Miyako Station.
The Yamada Line no longer goes to Yamada Town
As the name suggests, the Yamada Line was originally built with the aim of reaching Yamada Town, but Rikuchu-Yamada Station is included in the section between Miyako Station and Kamaishi Station that was transferred to Sanriku Railway. has become " the Yamada Line that doesn't go to Yamada
Miyako Station became the terminus of the Yamada Line in 2019
The population along the line between Morioka Station and Miyako Station is already low, and the number of people using the Yamada Line continues to decline. JR East has released figures for the number of passengers per kilometer per day (average number of passengers passing through) for fiscal year 2023, which is 227 people between Morioka Station and Kamiyonai Station, 71 people between Kamiyonai Station and Miyako Station, and 87 people for the entire section between Morioka Station and Miyako Station. This is the lowest number of any JR East line The environment along the line that led to people saying, "Are they even going to let monkeys on board?" is now becoming a real problem more than 100 years after construction of the Yamada Line began.
Additionally, while there is still demand for travel between Morioka and Miyako, the Yamada Line competes with the 106 Limited Express Bus and 106 Express Bus, which run parallel to National Route 106. The Yamada Line, which is inferior in terms of travel time and frequency of services, is struggling. With the opening of the Miyako-Morioka Crossing Road in 2021, it is likely that more people are using their own cars to travel. This puts the Yamada Line in an even more difficult position.
However, it is not being left to decline. For example, Morioka City is working to promote the use of the Yamada Line by publishing pamphlets introducing its attractions and how to use it.
Additionally, Iwate Kenhoku Bus, which operates the rival 106 bus, and JR East are collaborating to conduct a demonstration experiment to improve convenience, scheduled to run from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. The outline of the experiment is to make it possible to use a JR ticket to ride the 106 bus as well. It is unclear what conclusions will be reached from this demonstration experiment, but we hope that it will lead to results that will improve the use of public transportation, not just the Yamada Line.
The Yamada Line was also damaged by heavy rains in August 2024, and as of the time of writing this article in early December, service between Kamimai Station and Miyako Station is still suspended. Fortunately, the line will not be abandoned for now, and it has been announced that service will resume on December 20th, with special trains also scheduled to run around the New Year period. We hope that the Yamada Line will continue to operate in the future, despite repeated disasters and difficult circumstances.
![Genbikei bus stop](https://jp.neft.asia/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_5931-150x150.jpg.webp "The specialty of Genbikei, "Flying Dango," is definitely worth a visit! Delicious activities! [Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture]")
