Each day, for the next nine years, nine months and fifteen days, Hachiko awaited Ueno's return, appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.
If you go to Shibuya Station in Tokyo today, outside you’ll find a famous statue of a dog named Hachiko.
Hachiko would meet his owner, Ueno, every day after his commute home. This continued until one day Ueno died while at work. From then until his own passing, Hachiko would go to Shibuya Station every day awaiting his owner’s return.
For the Asics Modern Tokyo tongue label, I designed a patch that represented the city but with a little wink, a little bit of insider knowledge that only the people who know, know. The stripes represent the famous Shibuya Crossing itself but if you look closely at the top center, there’s a little triangular shape. That shape is Hachiko, still waiting for Ueno to return, all these years later. Now that’s loyalty at its finest.
Art Direction by Hisashi Maejima.
Color/Shoe Graphic by Shelly Mussenden.
Typeface: DDC Hardware by Aaron James Draplin.
Photos by Sneaker News.
