Hachiko
Dog born 1923, died 1935; mounted 1935
In a glass case among the dogs of Japan stands a cream coloured Akita with a soft curled tail and a worn leather harness. He is Hachiko, the most famous dog in the country, and many visitors come to this room specifically to see him. Born in Odate in northern Japan in 1923, he was brought to Tokyo as a puppy by Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agriculture at the Imperial University, and each evening he walked to Shibuya station to meet his master coming home from work.
In May 1925 the professor died suddenly at the university, and the dog kept coming. For nearly ten years Hachiko returned to the station at the same hour every day, fed by station staff and shopkeepers, until a newspaper article in 1932 made him a national celebrity. A bronze statue was put up outside the station while he was still alive, in 1934, and he attended its unveiling. He died in a Shibuya street in March 1935, and his body was brought here for preservation. Look at the slight droop of the left ear, which he injured in a fight, a detail the taxidermist kept.
The mount was made at the museum soon after his death and has stood in the Japan Gallery for decades, sharing a case with other Japanese breeds and with Jiro, the sled dog who survived a winter alone in Antarctica. Hachiko's loyalty became a lesson in Japanese schoolbooks and the subject of films in Japan and Hollywood, and the Shibuya statue is the most popular meeting point in Tokyo. Here you can see the real animal, quiet and dignified, in a museum instead of a crowd.
Did You Know? Hachiko's remains were divided: his body was mounted for this museum, while his ashes were buried beside Professor Ueno in Aoyama Cemetery.
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