Kawakami Ken

Comments

• sukoshi_mom

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Thanks for sharing. I believe that most histories indicate that the Kawkami Ken contributed to the "long-haired" Shiba gene somewhere in the Shiba mix. There was an earlier discussion over on the Shiba side about this.
• ShikokuSpirit

  February 2010 edited November -1

  I met a dog at the 2006 Nippo Show that I believe was a Kawakami Ken (a family pet visiting show). I have photos somewhere! It is a breed native to/preserved within Nagano, Japan.
• sunyata

  February 2010 edited November -1

  OH WOW!!! That looks JUST like Nola!!! The resemblance is absolutely uncanny!
  
  Hmmmmmm.
• dlroberts

  February 2010 edited November -1

  I wonder if some of the dogs with "non-standard" markings for Shibas (like Nola or Steph's Toby) are a result of Shibas being mixed with the Kawakami?
• sunyata

  February 2010 edited November -1

  i would say, most definitely. I know that Nola's mother was a Japanese import... So it is possible that at some point down the line she was mixed with the Kawakami. It would make sense with her colouring. The same thing could be said for Dave(Two Sock's)'s Levi. He has very similar colouring to Nola.
• Two Socks

  February 2010 edited November -1

  This is very interesting:)
• Araks

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Cute dog. It looks just like a sesame shiba to me
• tjbart17

  February 2010 edited November -1

  That dog does look like Levi & Nola!
• shishiinu

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Maybe the Kawakami is a shiba that adapted to the crazy cold winters of the Nagano mountains
  and grew the thick coat
• sukoshi_mom

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Here is the website link that I was thinking about from Shiba Inu Spirit:
  
  http://shibainuspirit.blogspot.com/2010/01/kawakami-ken.html
• Kenshi

  February 2010 edited November -1

  This breed is not a national monument of Japan, but it is a monument of Nagano. A story attached to the breed is that they would leave the bitches out in the mountains when they went into heat to interbreed with the mountain wolves.
• BradA1878

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Must have been some tiny little wolves! LOL
• shishiinu

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Well the extinct Japanese wolf was not that much bigger then a shikoku and some researchers has said that the nihon ken is not much different then the Japanese wolf.
• tjbart17

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Looks pretty small to me.....
  
  
• shishiinu

  February 2010 edited November -1

  also take into consideration that taxidermy back then was not that great so you have to take into consideration that there maybe quite a bit of shrinking of the skin.
• ayk

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Weren't there two extinct Japanese wolf species (subspecies?)?
• *JackBurton*

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Yeah, their taxidermy sucks... look at what they did to the owl!!!!!
• the_november_rain

  February 2010 edited November -1

  lol!!
• ShikokuSpirit

  February 2010 edited November -1

  LOL.
  
  
  It looks like the Japanese Wolf is next to the "stuffed" Serval...so the wolves were probably averaging about 50-60 lbs...as Servals are about 30-40 lb cats!
• Reno&Rico

  February 2010 edited November -1

  If this stuffed animal used to be a Japanese wolf, we may say that the Shikoku is a serious evolutionairy improvement :-)
• rodem2000

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Kawakami dog is an extremely rare breed with only about 300 specimens in Japan right now. In fact, the breed was considered extinct at one time and some people think what we have today is a recreated stock with heavy infusion of Shiba blood in them.
  There is another breed in Japan that has been saved from extinction (or has recently been recreated) and designated as a natural treasure of the prefecture of Okinawa called Ryukyu dog. It is a native breed of Okinawa, and judging from a few pictures found on the web the breed has yet to have a consistent phenotype to be recognized as a genuine breed in my opinion.
  Breeds that have also been recreated but yet to be designated as natural treasures are the Satsuma (native breed of Kagoshima and believed to have been recreated based on a few specimens of feral dogs brought from a small island off the west coast of Kyushu) and the Jikkoku (thought to be somewhat close to Kawakami dogs).
  Also, there are preservation societies of Mino Shiba and San’in Shiba, each striving to preserve these as separate breeds from the Shiba though the numbers are still small.
  
  There is also some discussion on the now extinct Japanese wolf. Hopefully tomorrow I'll post a few interesting pics related to this subject.
• Saya

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Thanks for posting this Rodem wow only 300 in Japan! I can't wait to learn more on these breeds.
• Reno&Rico

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Is there also any information available on how many Shikoku ken there are in Japan and outside?
• Reno&Rico

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Btw, wasn't the Ryukyu dog the type of dog that went to antarctica on the famous expedition?
• BradA1878

  February 2010 edited February 2010

  No, the Karafuto Dog was the Japanese sledding breed used in the expedition you are speaking of.
  
  There is actually a good bit of info on the Karafuto Dog in this forum, just search for "Karafuto"
  
  ----
• BradA1878

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Here is one thread: http://www.nihonken.org/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1627
• Reno&Rico

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Yup, you are right. I actually knew about it but looked for an image of the Ryukyu ken and it looked a lot like the Karafuto. Maybe some smaller?
• rodem2000

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Unfortunately little is known about the Japanese wolf due to the scarcity of skin and skeletal samples, while its larger counterpart in Hokkaido, Ezo wolf (also extinct), is known to have been similar or identical to Eurasian wolves. To make matters worse, there were two different words to denote the Japanese wolf, namely, ookami and yamainu, though it is not clear whether these were two different words for the same creature or there were in fact two different species of wolves (or wild dogs) in Japan proper.
  Though officially extinct since 1905, there have been numerous sighting reports concerning the Japanese wolf in different parts of the country until today. Here are a few pictures of a supposed Japanese wolf taken recently.
• rodem2000

  February 2010 edited November -1

  Here's another one.
• Saya

  February 2010 edited February 2010

  Neat pictures. It's sad that the Japanese wolf had to go extinct like that I hope other wolf species won't suffer the same fate. =\
  
  Anyways I hope those wolves in those pictures are real and survive.