[2][3][4] On 1 December 1898, the private Karatsu Kogyo Railway opened the station as the southern terminus of a track which it had built down the west bank of the Matsuura River from Miyoken (now Nishi-Karatsu).

[5] The private Kitakyushu Railway, which had a track between Hakata and Higashi-Karatsu by 1926 also expanded southwards a separate, parallel route down the east bank of the Matsuura River, establishing its southern terminus at Yamamoto on 20 June 1929.

The Kitakyushi Railway was nationalised on 1 October 1937 and JGR, now in control, designated the track from Higashi-Karatsu through Yamamoto to Imari as part of the Chikuhi Line.

On 22 March 1983, a new route for the Chikuhi Line was opened, with Highashi-Karatsu relocated and a through-track built across the Matsuura River from there via Watada to Karatsu.

[6][7] With the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR), the successor of JGR, on 1 April 1987, control of the station passed to JR Kyushu.