The true history of Hachiko

If for the Greeks the symbol of fidelity is Argon, the dog of Ulisse, for the Japanese is Hachiko, a dog of Akita breed. Hachiko was born in Odate, city that is located in the northern part of the prefecture of Akita, in November 1923. At two months he went in the house of prof. Ueno of the University of Tokyo. Every morning the university professor went to the station of Shibuya in order to take the train that carried him to his job and his dog accompanied him. All the evenings the dog returned to the station to receive his master who came back home. But one evening prof. Ueno did not come back, he was died for a heart stroke at the university. Hachiko, that was 18 months old, as all the evenings uselessly waited for him at the station. He was therefore put under the care of the professor’s relatives, but for 10 years, punctually, every day he continued to go to the station to wait for his master. The employers, affected from such attachment, built a shelter for him and they nourished him until he died in March 1935 at the age of 11 years and 4 months.
Now he is finally close to his master, indeed his grave is beside that one of prof.Ueno in the cemetery of Aoyama. Near the entrance of the station of Shibuya a statue has been erected in his memory and another has been placed at the entrance of the station of Odate: monuments to a forever faithful akita.

The legend of Shiro

This legend comes back to the time of Shogun Tokugawa (1603-1868).

There was once, among the mountains of the Akita region, a village of hunters. In this village a hunter named Sadaroku and his white Akita named Shiro lived. Sadaroku was the best hunter of the zone and for this the Lord of Nambu, invited him one day at his castle, delivered a roll to him that gave him the permission to hunt in the mountains of the region. One morning Sadaroku and Shiro go hunting. Suddenly the dog began to bark: a big wild boar was moving among the trees. Sadaroku aimed at him and shot; the wild boar, even if wounded, escaped. Shiro dashed off in pursuit of the boar and Sadaroku followed him. The hunting lasted all the night until the two noticed they had arrived in an unknown forest dominated by a castle.
They peered between the trees and saw the wild boar, Sadaroku shot newly and this time murdered him. But all at once he was surrounded by a group of samurais; they arrested him since he had dared to shoot in the nearby of the castle of Sannobe.
Sadaroku looked for the pass in his pocket but he did not find it, just that day he had forgotten it at home. Therefore he was dragged to the castle, condemned to death and put in prison. During the night Shiro succeeded in going under the grate of the prison and he began to yelp. His master heard him and he begged him to go to take the roll not hoping that the dog would have understood. Instead Shiro understood and left in a rush. He ran and ran crossing forests and plains and finally reached the house. Here he began yelping and desperately barking in front of his master’s wife, but the woman did not understand what he wanted. Then he took again the way of the return towards his master. When Sadaroku saw him coming back without the
roll was deprived of hope but then he remembered to have left it over the shrine of the ancestors; he told Shiro who left again running to all his worth . He reached the house, began to bark in front of the shrine. The wife saw the roll and this time, turning white in face, understood. Gave the roll to Shiro that took again his mad run towards the castle. At dawn Shiro was still running but he was to the extreme of his strengths. In the same moment Sadaroku was carried on the place of the execution; he asked of being able to see again for the last time his dog but this was denied.

It was therefore that, while he cried the name of Shiro, his head was cut. When little after the dog arrived with the roll in his mouth he found the body of his master by now without life. It began snowing, Shiro dragged the body of Sadaroku in the forest near the castle, dug and buried it. Then began to howl towards the castle and every day and every night howled all his pain. His howl reached also the castle and frosted the blood of those wholived in it. Shiro did not leave anymore that forest that since then is called the "howling forest".