The emotional story of Hachiko, the “most faithful dog in the world” whose centenary is commemorated this year

The Chinese catchphrase on the movie poster says it all: “I will wait for you, no matter how long it is.”.

Tell the true story of hachikothe faithful dog that continued to wait for his master at a train station in Japan long after man’s death.

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The cream-white Akita Inu, which was born almost 100 years ago has been remembered in all ways.

From books and movies to the sci-fi cartoon series Futurama.

And the Chinese film that can be seen these days in the country, the third after a Japanese version from 1987 and the one starring Richard Gere in 2009, it’s a blockbuster.

There have been stories of other devoted hounds like Greyfriars Bobby, but none with the global impact of hachiko.

There is even a bronze statue of him in front of Shibuya station in Tokyo, where he waited in vain for his owner for a decade.

The statue was first erected in 1934 before being recycled for warfare during World War II.

Japanese schoolchildren are taught the history of Chuken Hachikoor the loyal dog Hachiko, as an example of devotion and fidelity.

Hachiko represents the “ideal Japanese citizen” with his “unquestioning devotion,” says Professor Christine Yano of the University of Hawaii: “loyal, trustworthy, obedient to an owner and who understands his place in the larger scheme of things without relying on rationality for it.

Hachiko’s story

Hachiko was born in November 1923 in the city of Odate in Akita Prefecture, the original home of the Akitas dog breed.

the akita is a large japanese dog and one of the oldest and most popular breeds in the country.

Designated by the Japanese government as national icon in 1931they were once trained to hunt animals such as wild boar and moose.

A statue of Hachiko has stood outside Shibuya station in Tokyo since 1948. (GETTY IMAGES)

“Akita dogs are calm, sincere, intelligent and brave. Also obedient to their masters,” says Eietsu Sakuraba, author of an English-language children’s book about Hachiko.

“Plus they have a stubborn personality and they distrust anyone who is not their owner.

The year Hachiko was born, Hidesaburo Ueno, a renowned professor of agriculture and a lover of dogshe asked a student to find him an Akita puppy.

After an exhausting train journey, the cub arrived at the Ueno residence in the Shibuya district on January 15, 1924.

At first it was thought that he was dead.

According to Hachiko’s biographer, Professor Mayumi Itoh, Ueno and his wife Yae they nursed him back to health over the next six months.

Ueno called it Hachi, Japanese for “eight.” The suffix Ko is a tribute from the students of Ueno.

the long wait

Ueno took a train to work several times a week.

He was accompanied to the Shibuya station by his three dogs, including Hachiko, who would stay there until his return at night.

On May 21, 1925, Ueno, then 53, died of a brain hemorrhage..

Hachiko had been with him for only 16 months.

“While people were attending the wake, Hachi smelled his owner from the house and entered the living room. He crawled under the coffin and refused to move,” Professor Itoh writes.

Hachiko spent the next few months with different families outside of Shibuya, but finally, in the summer of 1925, ended up with Ueno’s gardener, Kobayashi Kikusaburo.

Having returned to the area where his late master lived, Hachiko soon resumed his daily commute to the station. It didn’t matter if it was sunny or it was raining to seas.

“At night, Hachi would stand at the front door and look at each passenger like i was looking for someoneItoh writes.

At first, the station employees found it a nuisance. Yakitori vendors would throw water at him, and small children would bully and beat him.

However, after the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Asahi Shimbun wrote about him in October 1932Hachi gained national attention.

Akita dogs are known to be very loyal to their owners. (GETTY IMAGES).

The station received food donations for Hachiko every day, while tourists came from far and wide to see it.

Poems and haikus were written about him.

According to the news, the event to raise funds in 1934 and dedicate a statue to him it drew a crowd of 3,000 people.

Hachiko’s death on March 8, 1935 made the front page of many newspapers.

at his funeral, Buddhist monks offered prayers for him and various authorities and dignitaries read praise.

Thousands of people visited his statue in the days that followed.

In impoverished post-war Japan, a fundraising campaign for a new statue of Hachiko even raised 800,000 yen, a huge sum at the time.

would be equivalent to US$28 million today.

The Hachiko statue is a popular site and often a rallying point for political protests. (GETTY IMAGES).

“In retrospect, I think he knew that Ueno wouldn’t come back, but he kept waiting. Hachiko taught us the value of keeping the faith someone,” Takeshi Okamoto wrote in a newspaper article in 1982.

When he was a high school student, he saw Hachiko at the station every day.

Remembering Hachiko

A memorial service for Hachiko is held outside Shibuya Station every year on April 8.

His statue is often decorated with scarves, Santa hats, and more recently, a surgical mask.

His mount is on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Some of his remains are buried in the Aoyama Cemetery, along with Ueno and Yae.

Statues of him have also been cast in Odate, Ueno’s hometown, Hisai, the University of Tokyo and Rhode Island, the American setting for the 2009 film.

Odate also has a series of events scheduled this year, when he would be 100 years old.

Will the world’s most loyal dog still be celebrated a century from now?

Professor Yano says yes because she believes that the “heroism of Hachiko” it is not defined by any particular period, rather it is timeless.

Sakuraba is equally optimistic. “Even 100 years from now, this unconditional and devoted love will remain unchanged, and Hachiko’s story will live forever.”

Nicholas Young

BBCNews

Source: Elcomercio