Hachiko and Ueno were reunited more than 90 years laterД®ighty years after the canineвЂ™s death, The University of Tokyo initiated a project to build a memorial statueВ to reunite Hachiko and his owner. The statue at Odate Station was also melted during the war, with the current statue dating from 1967. After the war, AndoвЂ™s son Takeshi built a new statue, which is the one you see in Shibuya today.

Some say that the metal was used to produce parts for a locomotive for what is now the Tokaido line. To add insult to injury, the original statue was melted just one day before the war ended. Not even Hachiko's statue managed to get an exemption for its metal during the Pacific War. During World War II, his statue was melted for train parts The real sculptor, Teru Ando, who was an acquaintance of Saito, hurried to finish his masterpiece before things got out of hand. Rumour has it that before the unveiling many scammers tried to make money by claiming they were the ones creating the statue. It's unusual for an honorific statue to be built while the person вЂ“ or in this case, dog вЂ“ in question is still alive, but Hachiko actually made an appearance at the opening of his statue in 1934. He attended the unveiling of his own statue The 'ko' was added to the end of HachiвЂ™s name around this time to show respect for his devotion and loyalty, and he gradually became known as Hachiko. The story naturally tugged at readers' heartstrings and Hachi quickly became a public icon. When Hirokichi Saito, the chairman of the Nihon Ken HozonkaiВ (The Association for the Preservation of the Japanese Dog) found out about Hachi and his story, Saito published an article in Asahi Shimbun newspaper about how the poor pup was being mistreated. Sadly, there are several stories about how Hachi was beaten and bullied by pedestrians and even children while he lingered around the station. He continued to do this for about 10 years, patiently waiting for Ueno to come home. KobayashiвЂ™s house was in Tomigaya (close to Ueno's previous home and within walking distance of Shibuya), so the pup could easily make his daily walk to the station. Eventually, he settled at the home of Kikuzaburo Kobayashi, Ueno's former gardener. He was bulliedДЄfter Ueno's death in 1925, Hachi was given away and forced to hop between several homes miles away from Shibuya, but he kept running back to the now-famous spot where he used to meet his owner every day. Photo: Edward Ma/Unsplash An undated stock photo of Shibuya Scramble Crossing 2. And there's a small museum, Akitainu Hozonkai, that'll teach you all you ever wanted to know about Akita-inu.

They've also decorated the city's manhole covers with Hachiko-related cartoon characters. Not only is there a Hachiko statue in front of Odate Station (above), you can find a Hachiko Shrine on the platform and many more Akita-inu statues in the area, like on top of the postbox at the City Hall (see below). Odate City is fiercely proud of being Hachiko's (and the Akita breed's) furusato (hometown), and loves to show it. Ueno named the pup Hachi after the number eight, which is considered lucky in Japanese вЂ“ the 'ko' was added later. He was put on an express train and arrived in Tokyo 20 hours later. The newborn pup was sold for ВҐ30 (a sizeable sum at the time) to Hidesaburo Ueno, an agricultural scientist at the University of Tokyo who was looking for a pure-bred Akita-inu ('Akita dog'). He was born in Odate City in Akita PrefectureВ on Novemto father Oshinai (named after the area they lived in) and mother Goma (which means 'sesame'). In contrast to him being a symbol of Tokyo's most fashionable 'hood, Hachiko was not originally from Shibuya, or even Tokyo for that matter. Since we can't help getting swept up in the emotion, we decided to create our own ode to Hachi with a list of little-known facts about man's best friend ever. The story continues to inspire Japan to such an extent that anotherВ statueВ was erected in 2015 at The University of TokyoвЂ™s campus, causing the country to shed even more tears over the bittersweet tale. And you probably know a little bit about how the pup waited patiently at Shibuya Station every day for his owner to come home from work, even after his master passed away.

You undoubtedly know about the Hachiko statue, Shibuya's de facto meeting spot.

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