Hachikō was an Akita born in Ōdate in November 1923. His owner, Professor Ueno Hidesaburō, died suddenly at his university in May 1925. From a later home nearby the dog walked to Shibuya Station every day and sat by the ticket gate, driven off at first and looked after in his last years. He died in March 1935. The single evenings in this short are imagined from that record, and it is told the way Father and Daughter (2000) tells a life: one place, returned to, seen from far away.

Is there a place where someone always waited for you?

Sources: Shibuya City Library and Shibuya Ward on Hachikō; the University of Tokyo's features on Hachikō and Professor Ueno; Uchida, Fujiwara, Sasaki and Nakayama, the 2011 study of his cause of death in the Journal of the Japan Veterinary Medical Association; Michael Dudok de Wit in conversation with Jonathan Hourigan about Father and Daughter.

Film and music: ours, an homage made independently of the makers of Father and Daughter. Sounds: recordings by Vurca, launemax, TRP, leonelmail, muse88, camdenavenue, dhallcomposer, jmbphilmes, petewyer2, TariqMK, laughatlantic, Linik53, Frigus_XIII, qubodup, ChristopherJngs, JoMungus, Wdomino, slv1, keweldog, peridactyloptrix, felix.blume, tallandtrue, 14FPanskaBartakova_Tereza, Filmscore, brunoboselli, Nox_Sound, schneidi67, Eakoontz, medyk3D, 123jorre456 and nvmbky (CC0) on Freesound, and by Joseph Sardin (CC0) on BigSoundBank; steps in snow by KVV_Audio and Percy Duke, the dog's nails by CUeckermann and his breath by YleArkisto (Freesound, CC BY). Piano samples: Apple Logic; strings, horn and flute: Apple GarageBand; cello: University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios. Font: Courier Prime (OFL).