Items12The creator’s order
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Akita (dog breed)The only large breed of the six, from the snowy north of Honshu. Dogs around Ōdate in Akita Prefecture were once kept for guarding and fighting, and preservationists steered them back towards the older hunting type; in 1931 the breed became the first of the six declared a natural monument, and…0 - 2
Hokkaido (dog breed)Japan's northernmost native breed was kept by the Ainu, which is why it is still called the Ainu-ken, and it carries a reputation as the boldest of the medium breeds, used to stand its ground against brown bears and to hunt deer. It was declared a natural monument in 1937. The double coat copes…0 - 3
Kai KenKnown in Japan as the tiger dog, the Kai comes from the steep mountains of Yamanashi, the old Kai Province. Its brindle coat is the giveaway: black, red or intermediate stripes on a harsh coat, although puppies are born almost solid and the pattern can take years to settle. It hunted deer, boar and…0i - 4
KishuFrom the Kii Peninsula, today Wakayama and Mie, the Kishu was bred to work boar and deer quietly alongside a single hunter, stalking rather than barking, and that one-person focus still shows in many dogs. It was declared a natural monument in 1934. Most Kishu are now white, a fashion shaped by…0 - 5
Shikoku dogStill sometimes called the Kochi-ken, the Shikoku comes from the mountains of Shikoku island, where hunters used it to hold deer and boar at bay, preferably by barking rather than biting. The modern dog descends mainly from the Hongawa and Hata lines and wears the most wolfish coat of the six:…0 - 6
Shiba InuThe smallest of the six and the one most people actually meet. Its name is usually read as brushwood dog, after the scrub it hunted birds and rabbits in, and today's breed was pieced together from the Shinshu, Mino and San'in lines after wartime hunger and later distemper outbreaks nearly ended it.…0i - 7
Ryukyu dogNot one of the six and not recognised by any major kennel club, the Ryukyu dog of Okinawa and Ishigaki belongs here because it is as native as any of them, a boar-hunting dog of the southern islands. Thought lost after the Second World War, purebred dogs were reportedly found in the Yanbaru forest…0i - 8
Japanese ChinJapan's classic companion breed, whose ancestors most likely came from China, was a pampered house dog of the elite long before the West took notice; one reached England in 1613 and Commodore Perry acquired one in 1853. It is nothing like the native hunting dogs: small, silky, moderately active and…0i - 9
Japanese SpitzA twentieth-century creation, bred in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s from white German Spitz and other small white spitz dogs, then standardised after the war. Because it was designed as a companion rather than a hunter, it is usually the most outgoing and trainable dog on this list, loyal and…0i - 10
Japanese TerrierThe Nihon Teria traces back to Smooth Fox Terriers that arrived at Nagasaki on Dutch ships and were crossed with small local dogs. Planned breeding began around 1920 and the Japan Kennel Club recognised it in 1930, which makes it Japan's own terrier rather than an imported one.
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