Until March 13, 2004, it extended 393 km (244 mi) between its two termini; however, with the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen on March 13, the section between Yatsushiro and Sendai was transferred to the third-sector Hisatsu Orange Railway Company.

Yatsushiro - Higo-Kōda - Hinagu (Hinagu-Onsen) - Higo-Futami - Kami-Tanoura - (Tanoura-Otachimisaki-Kōen) - Higo-Tanoura - Uminoura - Sashiki - Yunoura - Tsunagi - (Shin-Minamata) - Minamata - Fukuro - Komenotsu - Izumi - Nishi-Izumi - Takaono - Nodagō - Origuchi - Akune - Ushinohama - Satsuma-Ōkawa - Nishikata - Satsuma-Taki - Kusamichi - Kami-Sendai - Sendai The Kyushu Railway opened the 197 km Mojiko - Hakata - Kumamoto section between 1889 and 1891, extended the line south to Yatsushiro by 1896 and the company was nationalised in 1907.

The 14 km Kokura to Kurosaki section (on a new alignment to the west of the original line) opened in 1908, and was completed to Hakata by 1913.

[citation needed] The original Kokura to Kurosaki alignment avoided the coastline due to the Japanese army expressing concern at the vulnerability of a coastal route to enemy naval gunfire.

However, following Japan's success in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War, this concern diminished and the Kokura to Kurosaki section was rebuilt (and duplicated) on a new easier (though 3 km longer) alignment to the west of the original line in 1908.