The Enoshima Electric Railway or Enoshima Dentetsu Line (江ノ島電鉄, Enoshima dentetsu), also known by the abbreviation Eno-den (江ノ電), is a Japanese railway which connects Kamakura Station in Kamakura with Fujisawa Station in Fujisawa, Kanagawa. Stations en route include Hase, the stop closest to Kōtoku-in, the temple with the colossal outdoor statue of Amida Buddha. The railway is fully owned by the Odakyu Group of companies.
Route and operations
Enoshima Electric Railway route
The route is 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) long and has a rail gauge of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in). It is single-track; however, five of the route's fifteen stations are equipped with passing loops, allowing for the operation of bi-directional traffic. Included in the route is a short (450-metre (1,480 ft)) section of street running between Koshigoe and Enoshima stations. However, the entire line is governed under the Railway Business Act (鉄道事業法, Tetsudō Jigyō Hō) of the Japanese government, being granted an exception to allow for street running (the only other examples of street-running 'railways' being the Keihan Keishin Line, Keihan Ishiyama-Sakamoto Line and the Kumamoto Electric Railway). Trains are electrically powered from 600 V DC overhead lines. The section from Kamakura Station to Koshigoe is in the city of Kamakura; that from Enoshima to Fujisawa Station is in the city of Fujisawa.
The original Enoshima Electric Railway opened the line on 1 September 1902.[4]
The company subsequently went through a series of ownership changes: Yokohama Electric Railway Co. in 1911, Tokyo Electric Power Co. in 1921, (second) Enoshima Electric Railway Co. in 1926, Tokyu Corporation in 1938, Enoshima Kamakura Tourist Co. in 1949, and Odakyu Electric Railway Co. in 1953. The (third) Enoshima Electric Railway Co. was formed on 1 September 1981 as a subsidiary of Odakyu.[4]
Japanese alternative rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation's fifth studio album, Surf Bungaku Kamakura (released 2008), had each track named after a stop on the railway line starting with Fujisawa and ending with Kamakura. The band has since announced a continuation of this album for the rest of the stations that did not originally have a song, starting withYanagikōji Parallel Universe releasing as a B-side track in 2022.
Anime
The Enoshima Electric Railway and its rolling stock painted in the company's green-and-yellow colours have made numerous appearances in Japanese animated series, including those adapted from manga and light novel series such as:[6]
^ 私鉄車両編成表 2015 [Private Railway Rolling Stock Formations - 2015] (in Japanese). Japan: Kotsu Shimbunsha. 23 July 2015. p. 83. ISBN978-4-330-58415-7.
^ 路面電車年鑑2015 [Tramcar Annual 2015] (in Japanese). Japan: Ikaros Publishing. 20 January 2015. p. 48. ISBN978-4863209527.
^ abTerada, Hirokazu (19 January 2013). データブック日本の私鉄 [Databook: Japan's Private Railways] (in Japanese). Japan: Neko Publishing. p. 79. ISBN978-4-7770-1336-4.
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