Every loyal dog has a remarkable story to tell. Amongst them, Hachiko is the first tale adapted into various forms of art, such as movies, books, live-action, animation, manga, and sculptures, and became the symbol of eternally unconditional love and faithfulness that can never be demolished even by time and death.
Source:internet
Source:internet
Hachiko (ハチ公, which means the wasp son) was a Japanese Akita Inu male dog born on 10th November 1923, on a farm in Akita Prefecture. When he was one year old, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University, brought him to live in Shibuya, Tokyo, as his pet.
Source:internet
Source:internet
Hachiko walked with Ueno home from Shibuya Station every day after his commute work. Many people knew about them and admired their friendship. On 21st May 1925, Ueno suddenly passed away while at work due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Hachiko was waiting at the station on that sorrowful day, but he would never have the chance to meet his beloved owner again.
Source:internet
Source:internet
For nine years, nine months, and fifteen days, Hachiko came to the station and waited every day. No matter if it was sunny or stormy, the dog wasn’t absent even for only one day. At first, this act got on some people’s nerves, but after the first appearance of the article about him in Asahi Shimbun in 1932 thanks to one of Ueno’s students, Hirokichi Saito’s recommendation, people began to bring Hachiko treats and food.
Source:internet
Source:internet
Source:internet
Hachiko became a national sensation and courage of fidelity. The day Hachiko finished his waiting and came to meet his cherished owner was the day the dog left this world for good, 8th March 1935, at the age of eleven. He was found on a street in Shibuya, maybe on his way to wait for his old-time buddy. Very later, in 2011, scientists finally settled the cause of death of Hachiko: terminal cancer and a filaria infection.
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Hachiko was cremated, and beside Professor Ueno’s grave at Aoyama Cemetery in Minato, Tokyo, is his forever resting place. The dog’s pelt was preserved, and his taxidermy mount is permanently displayed at the National Science Museum of Japan in Ueno, Tokyo.
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In 2016, some of the ashes of Yaeko Sakano, the unmarried partner of Ueno and the other friend whom Hachiko loved a lot, were buried beside them. They now stay together as a happy family in paradise.
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Hachiko’s legacy is boundless, from the 1987 film Hachikō Monogatari directed by Seijirō Kōyama to the 2004 children’s book entitled Hachikō: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, written by Pamela S. Turner. Each year on 8th March, Hachiko’s devotion is honored with a solemn ceremony of remembrance at Shibuya Station, where a bronze statue based on his likeness sculpted by Teru Ando was erected.
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Above all, Hachiko has always been an endless inspiration and encouragement to artists, authors, and numerous people in the world about loyalty and love.
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