Kawakami Ken
I know there were old threads on this breed before, but when I went to look at them, a lot had been edited and there weren't any pictures left up, so I figured I'd make a fresh one instead of forcing people to make sense of the old ones.
I finally joined pinterest to have one more medium to post my dogs and information all over and I found quite a few pictures of these guys in a Japanese user's gallery. They're really cute. I'd probably mistake them for Hokkaido or Shiba if I didn't know any better.
The full gallery has sources for the images. http://www.pinterest.com/kazuyafff/kawakami-dog/
I finally joined pinterest to have one more medium to post my dogs and information all over and I found quite a few pictures of these guys in a Japanese user's gallery. They're really cute. I'd probably mistake them for Hokkaido or Shiba if I didn't know any better.
The full gallery has sources for the images. http://www.pinterest.com/kazuyafff/kawakami-dog/
Comments
I wish I could find more information on them. I might poke around some more to see what I can find.
I did a bit of poking around the forums myself and saw it mentioned that they're not recognized by Nippo and (I think it was Shigeru who said this) but they're considered a local variety of Shiba specific to Kawakami village, which seems to be located in Nagano prefecture. Posts indicated that the dog population was incredibly tiny-only 300.
Interestingly, the village has a website with a bit of English access, and if you take a look at the header, they've included their dogs there as a feature, but I can't seem to find a link (yet) to any more information.
http://www.vill.kawakami.nagano.jp/english/index.html
http://www.vill.kawakami.nagano.jp/kawakamiken/index.html
Based on the gist of what I'm reading, it sounds like they're very selective about who they sell the puppies to because the dog is so rare and, while not recognized by Nippo, is considered a treasure of Nagano prefecture. You have to undergo some kind of interview process wherein they'll determine whether or not you live in an area suitable to the dog's constitution (and it sounds like they're not fans of urban areas).
If you click the second link on the left-side navigation on this page, it'll take you to basic information about the standard and history, and the last link has photos of puppies.
EDIT: I just wanted to stick this here since I'd feel bad about making a *third* post in a row, BUT, there's also a contact for Kawakami Village (though not I think specifically for the dogs themselves at the bottom of the page) including a phone and fax number, in case anyone feels like inquiring further.
http://www.vill.kawakami.nagano.jp/kawakamiken/03_backnumber_01sonnai.html