Samurai dogs: the role of dogs in feudal Japan

Part 1

What dogs meant in samurai-era Japan

In samurai-era Japan, dogs served as guards and hunters. In the Ōdate area of northern Japan, samurai and wealthy farmers kept a guard and fighting dog that became the direct ancestor of the Akita. In the Tōhoku region, dogs called matagi dogs helped hunters track and subdue large animals such as bears, boars, and serows in the mountains. In fishing villages, Akitas stayed home to protect children.

In the Kubota Domain, the Satake West family, keepers of Ōdate Castle, is said to have used dogfighting to build the fighting spirit of their vassals. A belief also held that a samurai who died without honor might be reborn as an Akita, gaining a second chance to protect his master and regain his standing. If you think about your own dog today, it says something about how deeply these ideas tied a warrior's honor to the animal beside him.

Part 2

The Akita and other native breeds linked to this period

The Akita breed you might recognize today traces back to hunting dogs kept in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. These matagi dogs tracked and helped hunters subdue Japanese black bears, wild boars, and serows in snow-covered mountain terrain. The direct ancestor of the modern Akita, known until 1931 as the Ōdate dog, was kept as a guard and fighting dog by samurai and wealthy farmers. After samurai had favored the breed, Emperor Taisho later allowed all Japanese people to keep it. In 1931 Japan declared the Akita a natural monument, and organizers in Odate worked to preserve its original type through careful breeding.

Part 3

Tsunayoshi and the Edo-era laws protecting dogs

During the Edo period, the fifth Tokugawa shogun, Tsunayoshi, ruled Japan from 1680 to 1709. Starting in 1687, he issued a long series of laws called the Orders on Compassion for Living Things, aimed at stopping cruelty to animals, especially dogs. Tsunayoshi was born in the year of the dog according to the Chinese zodiac, and accounts say this shaped his devotion to protecting them. Under his rule, killing a dog could bring the death penalty, and owners were punished if their dogs were hurt. Fearing punishment, some owners abandoned their dogs rather than risk being blamed if something happened to them.

To house the growing number of strays, the shogunate built large kennels in Edo, and one facility eventually held more than 100,000 dogs. People sometimes addressed these dogs as oinu-sama, an honorific meaning something close to honorable lord dog. The laws proved deeply unpopular, since they also restricted hunting and hawking and punished offenses that felt trivial to ordinary people. This unpopularity earned Tsunayoshi the nickname the Dog Shogun.

After Tsunayoshi died in 1709, his successor, Tokugawa Ienobu, repealed most of the laws, and the Nakano dog shelter was later dismantled. Some say the rules still reduced the number of stray dogs and improved safety in Edo, though they placed heavy costs on ordinary people.