29/12/2019
Have you ever heard of Hachiko the dog? No? Neither had I until we visited Tokyo. If you ever go to Japan then odds are you will hear about him.
Hachiko is a national hero to the Japanese! A dog so famous there have been several movies made about him.
He has his own bronze statue next to Shibuya Train Station in Tokyo, where every day hundreds of people have their photograph taken with him.
Even Hollywood has made a movie about Hachiko! There is a statue of him at Rhode Island in the USA where the American version of the film was made.
So why is the Hachiko story so famous you may wonder? Well, I am happy you asked because here I will give you the amazing, real and very sad story about Hachiko the dog.
ONCE UPON A TIME, TOKYO 1923...
Eizaburo Ueno, professor in agriculture science at Tokyo University in Japan, had long wanted a purebred Japanese Akita dog. He had looked for the perfect Akita puppy for a long time, until one of this students encouraged him to adopt Hachiko, from the Odate city in the Akita prefecture of Japan.
Hachiko, or Hachi which became his nickname, and his new owner soon became best friends. Eizaburo loved his dear dog above all and treated him as his son. The two of them were inseparable.
As Hachiko grew older, he started to see his owner off to work in the morning at the Shibuya Train Station, in central Tokyo and went to pick him up at the station in the afternoon when he returned from work.
On May 21, 1925, only two years after Hachiko was born, Hachiko was as usually sitting by the exit at Shibuya train station waiting for his dear Eizaburo. But his owner never showed up...
It turned out that Eizaburo had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and died suddenly and unexpectedly while at work.
From then until his death on March 8, 1935, over 10 years, Hachiko would return to Shibuya Station every day to await Ueno's return.
During his lifetime, the dog was held up in Japanese culture as an example of loyalty and fidelity. Well after his death, he continues to be remembered in worldwide popular culture, with statues, movies, books, and appearances in various media.