46 Fun Facts About Akita

The Akita traces its roots to the hunting dogs of which group in northern Japan's mountains?

The Matagi's dogs were only medium-sized: the Akita became a large breed later, when the dogs were crossed with bigger breeds for fighting.

In which region of Japan did the Akita breed originate?

Tōhoku, in the north of the main island, includes Akita Prefecture, which gave the dog its name; its winters bring deep snow, which is why the breed wears a dense double coat.

What did the Akita's ancestors do for hunters on a bear hunt?

Held it at bay: the dogs were not there to make the kill, only to track a bear through deep snow and pin it in place until the hunter caught up.

What was the Akita called, after its home town, until it was renamed in 1931?

Ōdate dog was one of several local names for the big guard and fighting dogs of Akita Prefecture; the 1931 name gathered them all under the prefecture's.

Which Olympic figure skating champion was given an Akita puppy named Masaru in 2018?

Alina Zagitova received Masaru soon after winning in Pyeongchang: the breed's preservation society brought the puppy to Moscow, and Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, attended the handover.

Which world leader received an Akita puppy named Yume in 2012, a thank-you for aid after Japan's tsunami?

Vladimir Putin picked the name himself, the Japanese word for dream; when Japan offered a male companion for Yume in 2016, he turned it down.

What distinction did the Akita earn among Japanese dog breeds in 1931?

First breed designated a natural monument, but only at the second attempt: a 1920 survey found the dogs too crossbred to protect, and nine carefully bred Akitas won the status in 1931.

Who founded the Akita Inu Hozonkai preservation society in 1927?

A town mayor, Shigeie Izumi, founded it because crossbreeding for the fighting pit had nearly wiped out the pure local dog; Japan's national society for native breeds followed a year later.

Crossbreeding with which fighting breed had muddied the Akita by the early 1900s?

Tosa fighters reached the Akita's home town with touring dog-fight shows in the late 1800s, and crosses for stronger fighters followed; the prefecture banned dog fighting in 1908.

With which breed were Akitas crossed during World War II to escape a cull of non-military dogs?

German Shepherd crosses were a dodge: police were seizing dogs so their fur could line army coats, and only the military's own breed was exempt.

Roughly how many purebred Akitas were left in Japan when World War II ended?

About 20, and by some counts only 15 or 16: a dog that size was almost impossible to feed in a starving country.

After World War II, the Akita spent nearly fifty years on which everyday Japanese item?

A postage stamp: Japan put an Akita on its 2-yen stamp in 1953, while the breed was still being rebuilt after the war, and kept it there until 2002.

How did the puppy Hachikō travel from Akita to Tokyo in 1924?

By train, in a straw bag: after a winter journey of about a day the puppy reached Tokyo in such a state that he was at first taken for dead, and it took months to nurse him back to health.

What was unusual about Hachikō's first statue when it was unveiled in 1934?

He was alive to attend: Hachikō sat beside his own bronze at the April 1934 ceremony, an honour almost unheard of for a living animal, and died the following year.

For roughly how long did Hachikō keep returning to the station after his owner died?

Nearly 10 years: Hachikō kept his vigil from 1925 until his own death in 1935, at first chased off as a stray and only later fed and fussed over by commuters.

What did Hachikō's owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, do for a living?

University professor: Ueno taught agricultural engineering in Tokyo, and in 1984 his faculty's bronze bust of him was carried to Hachikō's statue so that the two could be reunited.

At which Tokyo station did Hachikō wait for his owner each day?

Shibuya has never let go of him: the exit beside his statue is officially the Hachikō Exit, and the bronze is one of Tokyo's best-known meeting spots.

What does the 'Hachi' in Hachikō's name mean?

Eight is certain; the reason is not. He is variously said to have been one of a litter of eight or to have had forepaws that splayed like the Japanese character for the number.

How did Hachikō's owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, die?

A brain haemorrhage at work took Ueno without warning on 21 May 1925; Hachikō, who had lived with him for little more than a year, is said to have refused food for days.

What suddenly made Hachikō famous across Japan in 1932?

A newspaper article in the Asahi Shimbun did it: a dog expert who pitied the old Akita, then treated as a stray, sent in his story, and readers were soon bringing Hachikō food.

Hachikō's famous bronze statue faithfully copies which flaw of the real dog?

A drooping left ear: it was the mark of a dog bite, not a birth defect, and sculptor Teru Andō chose to show the real, ageing Hachikō rather than a perfect show dog.

What happened to Hachikō's first bronze statue in 1945?

It was melted down for the war effort on 14 August 1945, the day before Japan's surrender, despite a promise to keep it in storage; the bronze became locomotive parts.

A 2011 re-examination found Hachikō died of heartworm and what else?

Cancer of the heart and lungs turned up when his preserved organs were re-examined; the yakitori skewers long blamed for his death had been in his stomach but done no harm.

Where is Hachikō's mounted pelt displayed?

National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, received his body within days of his death; two taxidermists shut themselves away for three months to make the mount, while his organs went to the University of Tokyo.

The 1987 Japanese hit film about Hachikō was officially remade in 2023 in which country?

China's remake moved the story to Chongqing and replaced the Akita with a native Chinese rural dog named Batong, so its Hachikō is not an Akita at all.

Who starred in the 2009 American film Hachi: A Dog's Tale?

Richard Gere, who also produced the film, plays a commuter who finds a lost Akita puppy at his local station; the remake moves the story from 1920s Tokyo to modern New England.

Who made the replacement Hachikō statue that has stood in Tokyo since 1948?

The first sculptor's son, Takeshi Andō, took on the job after his father was killed in a 1945 air raid; with bronze scarce, he gave up one of his father's own sculptures for the metal.

Which director, who later made A Dog's Purpose, directed Hachi: A Dog's Tale?

Lasse Hallström's film never reached American cinemas: Sony released it straight to DVD at home, yet it took more than $45 million abroad.

Which famous American brought the first Akita to the United States in 1937 after a tour of Japan?

Helen Keller had asked about Hachikō during her tour and said she would love an Akita of her own, so her hosts presented her with a puppy before she sailed home.

What does the name of Kamikaze-go, the first Akita to reach America, mean?

Divine wind: Kamikaze-go died of distemper soon after reaching America, so his brother, Kenzan-go, was sent from Japan to take his place.

What nickname did Kenzan-go, the second Akita sent to America, go by in his new home?

Go-Go settled in at once, sleeping at the foot of his new owner's bed on his very first night, and stayed her companion until he died in the mid-1940s.

How did many American soldiers first encounter the Akita?

Serving in the postwar occupation of Japan, troops took to the biggest, bear-headed dogs and shipped them home, which is why the American type still looks like the Akitas of the late 1940s.

In which American Kennel Club group has the Akita been shown since 1973?

Working Group, with the guard and sled breeds, is where America puts it, though the world federation, the FCI, lists the very same dog's use as simply 'companion dog'.

What did the American Kennel Club do with Akitas imported from Japan between 1974 and 1992?

Refused to register them: the American and Japanese kennel clubs had no agreement to accept each other's pedigrees, and in those 18 closed years the two countries' dogs drifted into today's two types.

What did the FCI first call the American type of Akita when it split the breed in 1999?

Great Japanese Dog lasted until 2006, when the FCI renamed the type the American Akita; its standard still gives the breed's origin as Japan and its development as the USA.

Where were Hachikō's ashes laid to rest?

Beside his owner's grave in Tokyo's Aoyama Cemetery, a small shrine marks the spot, so the dog who kept watch at the station was reunited with Ueno in the end.

How is a Japanese Akita's head usually described, in contrast to the American type's bear head?

Fox-like suits the lighter, finer-boned Japanese dog; the heavy bear head survives abroad because the Americans who first took Akitas home chose the biggest, broadest-faced dogs.

Which marking is a disqualification for Japanese Akitas but allowed on American ones?

A black mask disqualifies a Japanese Akita, yet it is the classic American look: masked dogs fell from favour in Japan after the war just as breeders in the United States took them up.

Besides red, sesame and white, which coat colour does the FCI standard allow on a Japanese Akita?

Brindle, a tiger-striped coat, completes the short list; pinto patches, common on American Akitas, disqualify a Japanese one, which is one reason the two types parted ways.

To which broad family of dog breeds, alongside the Shiba Inu, does the Akita belong?

Spitz features were nearly lost in the Akita: crosses with heavy fighting dogs brought floppy ears and straight tails, and breeders spent decades restoring the pricked ears and curled tail.

Long-coated Akita puppies sometimes appear in litters from two normal-coated parents; what causes the coat?

A recessive gene has to come from both parents, which is how two ordinary-coated Akitas can produce a fluffy pup; the long coat is a fault in the show ring but no handicap in a pet.

Akitas' feet are described as resembling which animal's?

A cat's: the breed standard asks for 'cat feet', well knuckled up with thick pads, and breeders customarily remove the hind dewclaws while leaving the front pair on.

Akitas share with Great Danes and other deep-chested dogs a raised risk of which life-threatening stomach emergency?

Bloat turns deadly when the gas-filled stomach twists and cuts off its own blood supply, which is why owners are told to keep hard exercise well away from mealtimes.

Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada syndrome, seen in Akitas, affects which parts of the body?

Skin and eyes are hit because both are rich in pigment cells, which the immune system attacks as if they were invaders; the human form is named after three eye doctors, two of them Japanese.

A quirk of the Akita's red blood cells can cause which problem at the vet's?

A false potassium reading: Akitas, like Shibas, pack far more potassium into their red cells than most dogs, and it leaks into the sample after the blood is drawn, mimicking a dangerous illness.

Kuma, who attended Hachikō's funeral, was what relation to him?

Son, and the only pup Hachikō is known to have fathered: Kuma's mother was a Fox Terrier called Debbie, so the most famous Akita of all left no purebred line.