Is Hachiko's Story True? Tracing It Through University and Shibuya Records

Hachiko, the loyal dog, is known for the bronze statue in front of Shibuya Station. How much of the story you know from films and picture books can actually be confirmed in the records?

This article traces Hachi's life using only materials published by a university, the ward and a museum. We look at what can be confirmed, where the sources differ, and where you can still visit him today. You will have one more story to share on your next outing with your dog to Shibuya or Ueno.

Hachi was born in Odate in 1923 and came to Dr. Ueno's home the next year

Hachi was an Akita dog born in November 1923 in Odate, Akita Prefecture. The following year he was taken in by Dr. Eizaburo Ueno, a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture of Tokyo Imperial University. According to Shibuya City, he was given to the professor, who then lived in the Omukai area of the town of Shibuya, when he was about two months old.

Dr. Ueno is known as the founder of agricultural engineering in Japan. Yet Hachi did not live with him for long. According to the University of Tokyo's magazine, they spent only a little over a year together, in 1924 (Taisho 13). The professor died suddenly in May 1925.

After Dr. Ueno died, Hachi kept waiting at Shibuya Station

After the professor's death, Hachi is recorded as running away from the home he had been left with, returning to Shibuya Station and waiting there for his master. In 1932, the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun reported on him in an article titled "The Story of a Dear Old Dog." According to Shibuya City, his name then spread across Japan, and he came to be called "Chuken Hachiko," Hachiko the loyal dog.

In 1934, local volunteers in Shibuya put up a bronze statue of him. Hachi himself attended the unveiling ceremony on April 21. His body was found on the south side of Shibuya Station before dawn on March 8 the following year, 1935.

University of Tokyo records say there is no record of daily station send-offs

According to University of Tokyo materials, the well-known scene of Hachi seeing the professor off and greeting him at Shibuya Station every day is not found in the records. A University of Tokyo faculty member writes that the professor walked to the university, which was then in Komaba, and calls the idea that he commuted by train every day a mistake. He points out that it is hard to imagine using Shibuya Station, in the opposite direction, for a walk of about ten minutes from home.

The professor took the train when he visited places such as the agricultural experiment station in Nishigahara. Hachi probably saw him off only as far as the area in front of the university's main gate.

The same article suggests that the story of daily send-offs at the station was worked backward from Hachi waiting there after the professor's death. It suggests the story probably took shape around a textbook for shushin, one of the subjects in prewar elementary schools, issued in November 1934. It also notes that the 1987 film "Hachiko Monogatari" includes a scene that most likely never happened. Shibuya City, on the other hand, writes that seeing the professor off to the Shibuya Station ticket gate was part of Hachi's daily routine.

The table below sums up where the sources differ. In the table, "ward release" means Shibuya City's press release and "ward library" means the Shibuya City Libraries reference page.

Within the scope of our research, we found no source that settles which version is correct. The sources used here agree on the core of the story: after the professor died, Hachi kept waiting for him at Shibuya Station.

The Shibuya statue is the second one; the first was lost during the war

The statue at the Hachiko exit of Shibuya Station today is the second one. The first was handed over and melted down in 1944 under the wartime metal collection order, a rule for gathering metal. The current statue was made by the son of Teru Ando, the sculptor of the first statue, and unveiled on August 15, 1948.

In 2015, a statue of Hachiko and Dr. Eizaburo Ueno was put up on the University of Tokyo's Yayoi Campus. It stands just inside the main gate of the Faculty of Agriculture. It was unveiled on the 80th anniversary of Hachi's death. The statue was funded by donations from inside and outside the university and is meant to symbolize the mutual affection between dogs and people.

The professor who proposed the statue recalls that few people knew Hachi's owner had been a University of Tokyo professor, and that probably even most faculty and staff did not know. The statue was made to convey the joy of meeting his owner again.

His mounted body is at the National Museum of Nature and Science; his grave is in Aoyama

Hachi's body was preserved by taxidermy, and it is kept at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno Park, Tokyo. The museum's floor guide lists Hachiko among its frequently asked exhibits. The description reads "the Akita dog who kept waiting at Shibuya Station for his master who had died."

His lungs and heart remain at the University of Tokyo and have been displayed since 2006 at the Agricultural Museum together with a bust of the professor. His grave was set beside Dr. Ueno's at Aoyama Cemetery. In 2016, the remains of the professor's wife, Yaeko, were also buried together with them in Aoyama, where Hachi and the professor lie.

If you head to Shibuya or Ueno with your dog

According to Shibuya City, a memorial service is held every year on April 8 at the Hachiko Square in front of Shibuya Station. On the day you visit the statue, it helps to be ready to carry your dog or use a pet cart so your dog can stay calm in the busy station area. You can review manners around town with the Public Manners with Dogs Quiz (Practice).

For a break after seeing the statue, you can search Inucomi for places near the station or places that allow pet carts. On a day out in Ueno, places near a park are another option. Rules for dogs differ from place to place, so check before you go.

The story of Hachi and the professor is also a chance to think about how dogs and people communicate. You can test your own understanding with the Dog and Human Communication Quiz (Advanced). To learn more about the history of Japanese dogs, try our column on the history of the Shiba Inu.