37 pages • 1-hour read
Hachiko Waits
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Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
The following morning, Yasuo and his mother don’t see Hachi or the Professor at the station in the morning. Mrs. Takahashi speculates that the Professor is either sick or out of town. When they return that afternoon, Hachi is waiting at his usual spot, but the Professor is still nowhere to be found. Now, Mrs. Takahashi is worried. She and Yasuo sit at the station and wait for the next two trains, but they don’t see the Professor.
Mrs. Takahashi decides to talk to Mr. Yoshikawa, who says that one of the Professor’s colleagues informed him that the Professor passed away at the university the day before. Yasuo asks what happened since the Professor was not very old. Mr. Yoshikawa replies that he doesn’t know. Yasuo cries, and they all look toward Hachi, who is still waiting at the platform. Yasuo suggests to his mother that they take Hachi home with them. Mrs. Takahashi hesitates, but she agrees to look after Hachi as a favor for the Professor, as he was always kind to her and her son.
Yasuo approaches Hachi and tells him that he and his family will take care of him. Yasuo commands Hachi to heel, but Hachi stays put. Mr. Yoshikawa ties Hachi to a leash, and it takes the combined strength of all three of them to drag Hachi away from the platform.
Chapter 6 Summary
Yasuo and his mother take Hachi to their house, where Hachi just sits, staring at the door. They give him a bowl of water, but Hachi doesn’t touch it. Yasuo stays by the dog’s side, stroking him and speaking to him. He is sad that Hachi doesn’t seem to want to live with him. Yasuo tries to communicate to Hachi that the Professor will never return and that he will take good care of Hachi instead, but the dog doesn’t understand. Yasuo’s father comes home from work, and Mrs. Takahashi explains why Hachi is at their house. Mr. Takahashi tells his son that taking care of a dog is a major responsibility. Yasuo replies that he understands and that he is willing to undertake the duty of caring for Hachi.
The family eats dinner, Yasuo offering Hachi pieces of his food, but Hachi never turns away from the door. After dinner, Yasuo and his father try to take Hachi for a walk. They tie him to a leash, but as soon as they open the door, Hachi leaps away, pulling the leash out of Mr. Takahashi’s hand. They try to run after him, but Hachi is much faster. Yasuo is upset, but he understands that Hachi doesn’t want to stay with them. His father reassures him by explaining that Akitas are intelligent and powerful dogs who were bred to hunt bears, so Hachi should be able to fend for himself.
Chapter 7 Summary
The next morning, Yasuo is too mournful to eat. He can’t even take a sip of miso soup, as his stomach is “too full of sadness” (53). Yasuo calls for Hachi as he and his mother walk to the train station, but Hachi doesn’t show up.
During school, Yasuo can’t focus. He worries that Hachi won’t find food and water and that he will never see the dog again. However, when Yasuo and his mother arrive at Shibuya Station that afternoon, Hachi is waiting on the platform. Yasuo is overjoyed that Hachi is okay and hugs the dog. Hachi wags his tail in response but remains seated with his eyes scanning the crowd for the Professor. Mr. Yoshikawa realizes that Hachi will continue coming to the station every day to wait for the Professor. He asks Yasuo if he will help take care of Hachi at the station. Yasuo remembers pledging to his father that he is capable of such a responsibility, and he agrees.
Chapter 8 Summary
Every day, Hachi comes to Shibuya Station at exactly five minutes to three o’clock, hoping to see the Professor. Of course, the Professor never comes, but Yasuo gets off the train every day after school and helps Mr. Yoshikawa feed Hachi and clean his coat.
When Yasuo turns 10, he begins taking the train to school alone, without his mother’s accompaniment. Regular passengers start to notice Hachi and ask Yasuo about him. One day, a journalist watches Hachi for a while and then takes pictures of him, asking Yasuo some questions. The next day, there is a story about Hachi in the newspaper. The headline is “Hachiko Waits.” Yasuo and Mr. Yoshikawa agree that Hachi has earned the name “Hachiko,” as “he deserves a name of respect” (62).
The article makes Hachiko famous throughout Japan, and many people come to view him as an inspiration because he never gives up hope. People donate money to Mr. Yoshikawa to feed the dog, and others come to the station to meet him, believing that petting Hachiko will grant them good fortune.
Years go by, and Mr. Yoshikawa and Yasuo have enough money from donations to buy Hachiko nicer meals. One day, Yasuo brings Hachiko a chicken skewer. The boy tries to take the chicken off the skewer for the dog, but Hachiko grabs the whole skewer and effortlessly pulls the pieces of chicken off himself. Impressed, Yasuo calls the yakitori vendor and Mr. Yoshikawa over to watch Hachiko eat. They are all fascinated by the dog’s skill, and Mr. Yoshikawa notes that in addition to being smart, Hachiko “had an excellent teacher” (64). The yakitori vendor says that Hachiko can have as many skewers as he wants for free.
One day when Yasuo is a teenager, his classmates invite him to play baseball with them when they get off the train after school. Yasuo feels torn since he’s never missed a day of feeding Hachiko. Mr. Yoshikawa encourages Yasuo to go with his friends, but Yasuo decides to stay and help Mr. Yoshikawa care for Hachiko. Mr. Yoshikawa remarks that one day Hachiko will reward Yasuo for his devotion.
The two continue to care for the dog every day for many years. In addition to feeding and cleaning him, they ensure that people in the station treat Hachiko well. Hachiko still comes to the station at the exact same time every day, no matter what. Sometimes it rains or snows, and one day there is even an earthquake, but the dog is unfazed.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
The Reciprocation of Loyalty gains even more significance after the Professor’s passing. At this point, the extreme level of Hachi’s commitment to the Professor is evident. Hachi’s devotion may partially stem from the instinctual bond he shared with his master, but it is also a clear result of the Professor’s affection for Hachi and strict adherence to routine. Hachi refuses to become close to anyone else, as he is loyal to the Professor—as the Professor was loyal to him—and will remain so for life.
The relationship between Hachi and the Professor is not the only manifestation of this theme. Despite Hachi’s single-minded loyalty to another person, Yasuo is devoted to his care and becomes as loyal to Hachi as Hachi is to the Professor. In fact, Yasuo’s dedication to Hachi is rooted partly in the fact that he shares the dog’s sentiment—Yasuo also wants to do right by the Professor, having come to respect him greatly as a venerable elder within the community. This exemplifies the ripple effect that Professor Ueno’s virtue has on others, developing the theme of The Creation of Cultural Legacy. The Professor’s noble way of life positively influences both Hachi and Yasuo, who go on to inspire masses of people to behave charitably and honorably.
Hachi never fully returns Yasuo’s level of commitment (though Yasuo is eventually rewarded indirectly for his devotion), but he does become more accepting of Yasuo’s involvement in his life over time. Shared grief over the Professor’s loss strengthens the mutual understanding between Hachi and Yasuo, which is made more notable by the fact that the two have different emotional experiences of the event: Hachi is never able to comprehend that the Professor is gone forever, while Yasuo is devastated by the knowledge that the Professor will never return. Nevertheless, their grief manifests similarly, suggesting an underlying continuity of feeling; for instance, both Yasuo and Hachi lose their appetites in the aftermath of the Professor’s death. This highlights both the profound experience of grief, which even has physical manifestations, as well as the emotional similarities between humans and animals, which can outweigh the differences between the two. The connection between Hachi and Yasuo exemplifies Love and Grief as Unifying Forces—a positive side to sometimes difficult emotions.
Indeed, the profound connection between humans and dogs informs every aspect of Hachiko Waits. Another way that the story demonstrates this kinship is by partially anthropomorphizing Hachi. In some cases, this anthropomorphism intersects with personification as Newman describes Hachi’s behavior with diction usually used for human actions (in Chapter 9, for example, she describes him as “sighing”) in a way that invites readers to empathize with his manners and emotions. Beyond word choice, however, the novel gives Hachi humanlike attributes; for instance, he responds to different people in different ways and appears to be able to tell time. Likewise, his ability to eat yakitori (chicken skewer) by removing the meat from the stick is a skill typically reserved for humans. This detail characterizes Hachi as intelligent and almost human, but it also reinforces Hachi’s connection to Professor Ueno, who intentionally taught Hachi how to eat a skewer when he was a puppy. Mr. Yoshikawa’s reminder to Yasuo that Hachi also “had an excellent teacher” reinforces the idea that the Professor’s influence on Hachi was so profound that Hachi carries traces of the Professor in all aspects of his behavior (64)—another form of legacy.
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