11 Dec | Posted by Livia | 8 comments |
True stories that inspire us to love our pets as they love us. Hachiko. We kick off our series Tales with Tails with the most famous story of pet loyalty: Hachiko. He was an Akita who greeted his master, Hidesaburo Ueno, at the Shibuya Train Station in Tokyo when he returned from work every day. One day, Ueno suffered a stroke at work and died. Not knowing of his master’s death, Hachiko returned to the train station every day waiting for Ueno’s return until he died of old age nine years later. Following his death, he was buried next to Ueno. Hachiko’s story has woven itself into Japanese lore as an example of boundless loyalty, and he is credited with helping save the Akita breed from extinction. The Shibuya Train Station contains a bronze statue of Hachiko that was first erected while he was still alive (the original statue, however, was melted down during WWII). The statue has become one of Japan’s most popular tourist attractions and his story has inspired numerous books, movies, and other media. In 2009, Hollywood whitewashed his story into ‘Hachi: A Dog’s Tale’ starring Richard Gere. For more information, google Hachiko. There is also an entry for Hachiko in Wikipedia.
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