Richard Gere and Hachiko, the most faithful dog in history 

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Richard Gere and Hachiko, the most faithful dog in history

Hachiko was a loyal hound who became a hero in Japan and inspired a Hollywood movie

Devoted: the tale of Hachiko, pictured right in statue form in Japan, became a film with Richard Gere  Photo: Alamy

Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agricultural science at Tokyo Imperial University, always took the four o’clock train home from work and every day his dog, Hachikō, would be waiting for him on the platform at Shibuya station. When Professor Ueno died of a cerebral haemorrhage in May 1925, in the middle of a lecture, his gardener, who inherited his house in the Kobayashi district, also adopted Hachikō, and for the next 10 years this golden-brown Akita would return to Shibuya station every day to meet the four o’clock train, hoping to see his beloved master again. In 1935, Hachikō’s body was found in a Tokyo street. His remains were stuffed, mounted and put on display in Japan’s National Science Museum. A bronze statue of the famous dog stands outside Shibuya station to this day, and he also has his own memorial by the side of his master’s grave in Aoyama cemetery.

Hachikō isn’t the only dog whose statue oversees a railway station. In 2007, a memorial was erected at the Mendeleyevskaya station on the Moscow Metro in honour of Malchik, a stray mutt who lived there for about three years, becoming popular with commuters and Metro workers. Malchik claimed the station as his territory, protecting travellers from drunks, the homeless and other stray dogs. In 2001, after an altercation with a bull terrier, Malchik was stabbed to death by the other dog’s owner, a psychiatric patient with a long history of cruelty to animals.

Heroic dogs like Malchik and Hachikō continue to appeal, growing even more famous and beloved as time goes by. Hachikō has been the subject of two children’s books and two movies. In 1994, millions of listeners tuned in to the radio in Japan to hear a restored recording of Hachikō’s bark, and in 2012, enthusiasts queued for hours to see an exhibition of rare photographs from the dog’s life. To his fans, Hachikō was unique, perhaps even miraculous in his devotion. Yet to those with a broader view, Hachikō’s story is simply the most recent variant of an ancient and widespread folk tale motif: the faithful hound.

Arguably, the best-known example of this theme may be found in the famous Welsh story of the hero Llewellyn and his loyal hound, Gelert. In this legend, Llewellyn returns from hunting to discover his baby missing, the cradle overturned, and blood around the mouth of his dog. In a rage, the hero draws his sword and stabs Gelert. The dog’s expiring whimper wakes the baby, who’s lying unharmed under the cradle along with a dead wolf, killed by the loyal Gelert. Llewellyn is overcome with remorse, and the sound of his faithful dog’s dying whimper haunts the impulsive hero evermore.

A tale that remains current in so many different times and cultures must speak to a universal truth. Dogs are certainly faithful creatures, capable of expressing grief for a lost companion, spending time beside the dead body of a beloved friend, and finding their way home despite tremendous obstacles. Nevertheless, the primary instinct of a healthy dog – like that of all healthy creatures, including humans – is self-preservation, and on further investigation these miraculous hounds often prove rather less marvellous than they first appear.

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The 19th-century counterpart of Hachikō was Greyfriars Bobby, a humble little Scottish terrier who lived in the Greyfriars burial ground in Edinburgh, allegedly unwilling to leave his master’s grave. In his book Greyfriars Bobby: The Most Faithful Dog in the World, author Jan Bondeson proves there were actually two different dogs going under Bobby’s name, both ordinary mongrels who made their home in the burial ground, eating leftovers provided by a local restaurateur. Bobby, explains Bondeson, was simply the latest in a series of now-forgotten cemetery dogs, including Médor, Dog of the Louvre; the Dog of Montparnasse; and the Dog of the Innocents. Like Greyfriars Bobby, these turned out to be “composite” dogs, strays that took advantage of the public’s willingness to bring them scraps, helping – as they believed – to sustain these loyal creatures in their vigils.

In the case of Hachikō, the dog seems to have been feeding – quite literally – on his own publicity. Once he became a regular visitor to Shibuya station, people started to spread the word.

The dog’s story was reported in the local paper, and commuters who passed through Shibuya began to look forward to seeing Hachikō, saving him leftovers from lunch. Since he spent less than two years meeting Professor Ueno at Shibuya and another eight years repeating the behaviour, it seems fair to suggest his daily trip to the station may have been motivated less by steadfastness than by the anticipation of snacks.

From The Great Grisby: 2,000 Years of Exceptional Dogs by Mikita Brottman (HarperCollins, rrp £16.99), available from Telegraph Books at £14.99 plus £1.95 p & p: 0844 871 1515.

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