The man who saved the Akita Inu
I just finished reading Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain
One day in 1944, in the midst of World War II Japan, with people suffering and starving around him, Morie Sawataishi heard something troubling. The country people of Akita Prefecture were killing their dogs and selling their pelts to the military in order to line the winter coats of officers. The Akita dog, already dwindling in numbers as it fell out of favor, neared extinction. When an acquaintance offered him a puppy, Morie could not resist buying her and later purchased a male for breeding after he was able to verify the existence of only 16 other Akita dogs. Sherrill tells the story not only of the salvation of an ancient breed of dog but also of the complicated man who loved them and of his Tokyo-born wife, who had to learn country ways and how to love dogs. Throughout the book, the changes in postwar Japan are woven into the narrative, along with tales of Morie’s Akitas.
I’m not a dog person, but all the hype on TV about Richard Gere’s Hachiko movie kind of made me interested in the history of the Akita dog breed. I stumbled upon the book by chance and found it to be a very good read.
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