The Hachiko Exit at Shibuya station has a statue of the famous dog, Hachiko, which has become a popular meeting spot for people getting together in Shibuya. There was an article, in The Daily Yomiuri, today on the new English language book about Hachiko that been recently released. Here's the story behind the legend:
A dog's lifeThe male Akita later named Hachiko was born in Odate in northern Akita Prefecture in November 1923 and given to Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at the School of Agriculture at Tokyo Imperial University (now Tokyo University) by a former student who knew of the professor's affection for the big, strong dogs traditionally bred in the town.
Hachi, so named because he was the eighth dog Ueno had owned, would accompany his master from home to nearby Shibuya Station each morning and then come back each afternoon to await his master's return on the 3 p.m. train. On May 21, 1925, Ueno suffered a fatal stroke at work. Despite a few initial efforts to send the dog to be adopted by new owners, Hachiko continued to go to the station every day to wait for Ueno and would spend his nights sleeping on the porch of the late professor's house in Shibuya.
Cared for by Ueno's gardener Nenokichi Takahashi and the stationmaster, the big cream-colored dog became a fixture at the station, often begging food from the numerous street vendors in the neighborhood.
Despite becoming nearly lame from arthritis in his last years, Hachiko continued to show up at the station like clockwork just before 3 p.m. each day, waiting until dark to return home.
His fame spread beyond the district in 1932, when he was the focus of a series of newspaper articles. Contributions poured in from across the country and even from overseas, and a statue was unveiled at the faithful dog's regular waiting spot on April 21, 1934, bearing the words "Chuken Hachiko" (Loyal Dog Hachiko), using an affectionate diminutive form of the name Hachi.
On the evening of March 7 the following year, the dog was found collapsed at his post in front of the station and died early the next morning.
The story headlined newspapers across the country and a day of mourning was declared.
Hachiko was stuffed and mounted and can still be seen at the National Science Museum near Ueno Station in Tokyo, but his bones are interred with those of his master in Aoyama cemetery.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
A moving story Patrick - I have tears in my eyes.
When in Japan I read about this dog being a popular meeting place and decided to meet some friends from Nagoya there one day. It turns out that it is in fact the worst possible place to meet people in the whole world - due mainly to its popularity - which saw about 500 people crammed in around it, thus preventing me from meeting my friends for about 30 minutes - the time it took us to find each other in the crowd. Why it remains a popular metting place I really don't know. Perhaps the numbers have dropped off since 1998, thus forming a kind of popularity / practicality equilibrium.
Posted by: Edward | June 18, 2005 at 08:22 PM