"Koshi no Inu" - An extinct Japanese breed

motmot
edited June 2011 in Other Breeds
Hi, all. I happened to find this less known NK yesterday.
The below is the rough translation of article from Japanese Wikipedia.
It's sad we cannot see this breed today!


"Koshi no Inu" is an extinct Japanese native breed which existed in Japan until 1971.
They were medium sized dogs originated in the northwestern　part of Japanese main Island bred for hunting boars and deers.
It is similar in appearance to the other Japanese breed.So is the temperament -brave and alert.
They were registered as "National Treasure of Japan" in 1934.
They were also declared for "the Animal of prefecture" in Fukui region.

Links for their pictures.

http://mytown.asahi.com/areanews/toyama/TKY201011120479.html
http://info.pref.fukui.jp/bunka/bunkazai/sitei/tennen/ken-koshinoinu.html
http://www.bbt.co.jp/youdoki/heso/heso_060220.html

Comments

  • SayaSaya
    Neat looking breed thanks for linking it sad it's no longer. =\
  • Brego_mellon_ninBrego_mellon_nin
    If they were registered as National Treasure in 1934, how could they get extinct in '71? Weren't they "protected" or at least had supervised breedingprogramme?

    Great looking dogs anyways :)
  • TheWalrusTheWalrus
    The Koshi no Inu didn't make it through WW2 with enough quality specimens to recover. They lacked a strong enough pool of breeders to survive. Their numbers and awareness of the breed was also the lowest among the NK. The were also spread out over a fairly large geographic area with a lot of variance in type. After the war there were very few left, and they slowly disappeared with the last purebred dying in 1971. There are still pockets of dogs that carry some blood from the breed, but numbers are low.
  • Brego_mellon_ninBrego_mellon_nin
    Okay, makes sence. Didn't they use the dogs for fur for soldiers when the americans were in Japan in WW2? I think I read that the akita number dropped dramatically because of this? Damn soldiers, wear cotton!
  • aykayk
    edited June 2011
    Tanja,

    Best as I remember, the Americans were in Japan during post-war restoration, not during the war. The atomic bombs eliminated any need for land combat within Japan.

    The Japanese killed the dogs for fur during the war, not the Americans. The Japanese killed dogs in Japan and dogs in Korea for their soldiers.

    Dog fur is actually very warm. Cotton doesn't insulate nearly as well.
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