Walking with a dog: Daily life with a 3-year-old Shiba Inu

I was frustrated because I couldn't go inside the campus, so I stayed for a while. There is also a walking course around Waseda University.

Keiko Kusano, Professor Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Professor Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Specializes in Russian literature and comparative literature. At School of Culture, Media and Society I am also in charge of an exercise called "Dogs and Dog Literature.''

I live with a 3 year old Shiba Inu named Wabisuke. The name was taken from Wabisuke Tsubaki. I thought that Wabisuke, which has small, modest, and pretty flowers of the Japanese camellia flower, was a perfect name for the Shiba Inu, the smallest of the Japanese dogs. However, while the standard weight for a male Shiba Inu is around 10 kg, Wabisuke easily weighs over 15 kg, and it is no longer clear whether this name was appropriate.

Anyway, my neighbors love me and call me Wabi-chan, Wakkun, and Wabby. When He was a young dog, He used to look at him and think, "This child has a very plain look on her face,'' but now, his expression shows a good consideration, reflecting the hardships of living with someone like me. As the owner, I believe that beautiful shiba Inu has grown into a melancholy character.

My life with my dog is very regular: I wake up around 4am every morning and go for my morning walk at 5am. I go out three times a day, twice in hot weather, even in typhoons or heavy snow. For me, life with a dog is a life of walking. In total, I sometimes walk for more than 5 hours a day.

Wabisuke like climbing on the mountain-like playground equipment at the local park I often go to. Climb only in the early morning so as not to disturb the children.

Wabisuke's "kunkatsu'' and "marking'' during his walk are an act of reading the traces of others, leaving his own traces on top of them, and having those traces received by others and remade. This is also relevant to my specialty, literature, and I walk while thinking about the boundary between animals and humans.

Since the distant past, when some of the dogs' ancestors, the wolves, chose to walk alongside humans, humans have exploited and sacrificed dogs, used incredible violence, and ruthlessly controlled reproduction, resulting in many dog breeds. As someone who loves dogs in the same world, I can't help but wonder how the lives of countless dogs continue to be taken away from this huge and horrific system, which generates profits through the distribution system. I think you have to feel it.

Photo left: The curly tail is a characteristic of the Shiba Inu.
Photo on the right: When I went to the beach. This was the first time I saw the sea

Since I was a child, I have lived with three Shiba Inu (and their mongrels), first a Shiba Inu mongrel, then a so-called purebred Shiba Inu, and then Wabisuke, who is also a Shiba Inu. I like all kinds of dogs, but I especially like Japanese dogs and their mixed breeds. I feel a deep attachment to the dog's simple elegance with its erect ears, short hair, and curly tail, as well as its independent personality. I touched his rough, hard fur and looked into his dark brown eyes. The sound of our breath as we walk together, and the occasional feel of a cold, wet nose against the back of my knees. Even when I'm away from home, my dog smells like dry grass. It fills me with a sense of happiness.

The cloth snood that is tied around the neck is a summer walking item that has an ice pack inside. I often choose ones with a camellia pattern after the name.

People around me are now worried about losing their pets, and I sometimes imagine Wabisuke's death. You think about your own emotions and physical reactions rather than the specific situation or scene of the breakup, but when the time actually comes, you will be overwhelmed with a sense of sadness and loss that is far beyond your imagination. But I believe that living through such suffering is the only way to live fully. I want to live my life with Wabisuke to the fullest, including that experience.