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Title details for Dog Man by Martha Sherrill - Available

Dog Man

An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain

by Martha Sherrill
Laural Merlington
Audiobook
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As Dog Man opens, Martha Sherrill brings us to a world that Americans know very little about—the snow country of Japan during World War II. In a mountain village, we meet Morie Sawataishi, a fierce individualist who has chosen to break the law by keeping an Akita dog hidden in a shed on his property.


During the war, the magnificent and intensely loyal Japanese hunting dogs are donated to help the war effort, eaten, or used to make fur vests for the military. By the time of the Japanese surrender in 1945, there are only sixteen Akitas left in the country. The survival of the breed becomes Morie's passion and life, almost a spiritual calling.


Devoted to the dogs, Morie is forever changed. His life becomes radically unconventional—almost preposterous—in ultra-ambitious, conformist Japan. For the dogs, Morie passes up promotions, bigger houses, and prestigious engineering jobs in Tokyo. Instead, he raises a family with his young wife, Kitako—a sheltered urban sophisticate—in Japan's remote and forbidding snow country.


Their village is isolated, but interesting characters are always dropping by—dog buddies, in-laws from Tokyo, and a barefoot hunter who lives in the wild. Due in part to Morie's perseverance and passion, the Akita breed strengthens and becomes wildly popular, sometimes selling for millions of yen. Yet Morie won't sell his spectacular dogs. He only likes to give them away.


Morie and Kitako remain in the snow country today, living in the traditional Japanese cottage they designed together more than thirty years ago—with tatami mats, an overhanging roof, a deep bathtub, and no central heat. At ninety-four years old, Morie still raises and trains the Akita dogs that have come to symbolize his life.


In beautiful prose that is a joy to read, Sherrill opens up the world of the Dog Man and his wife, providing a profound look at what it is to be an individualist in a culture that reveres conformity—and what it means to live life in one's own way—while expertly revealing Japan and Japanese culture as we've never seen it before.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 2, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400127269
      • File size: 181771 KB
      • Duration: 06:18:41

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The unlikely story of a Japanese man who becomes a champion of the Akita breed is brought to life through the fable-telling quality of Laural Merlington's narration. Merlington's reading makes the historical backdrop of WWII an engaging part of the plot, rather than mere pedantic detail. The protagonist's love of dogs at a time when there wasn't enough food for humans and the Akita were being slaughtered to line coats is highlighted alongside a depiction of the fiercely competitive show-dog circuit in Japan. Merlington manages the Japanese names and phrases adeptly, allowing the listener to be immersed in this slice of life in a bygone era. M.R. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 10, 2007
      Morie Sawataishi had never owned a dog, but in 1944, when the Japanese man was 30 years old, the desire for one came over him like a “sudden... craving.” During WWII, snow country dogs were being slaughtered for pelts to line officers’ coats; working for Mitsubishi in the remote snow country, Morie decided to rescue Japan’s noble, ancient Akita breed—whose numbers had already dwindled before the war—from certain extinction. Raised in an elegant Tokyo neighborhood, his long-suffering wife, Kitako, hated country life, and his children resented the affection he lavished on his dogs rather than on them. The book brims with colorful characters, both human and canine: sweet-tempered redhead Three Good Lucks, who may have been poisoned to death by a rival dog owner; high-spirited One Hundred Tigers, who lost his tail in an accident; and wild mountain man Uesugi. To Western readers Morie’s single-mindedness may seem selfish and Kitako’s passivity in the face of his stubbornness incomprehensible, but former Washington Post
      staffer Sherrill (The Buddha from Brooklyn
      ) imbues their traditional Japanese lifestyle with dignity, and Morie’s adventures (he is now 94) should be enjoyed by dog lovers, breeders and trainers. B&w photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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