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Whistle Stopper - Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $13.94
Your Save: $ 12.01 ( 46% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.73
EAN: 9781594201240
ISBN: 1594201242
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2008-02-28
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Reading
Comment: This book has touched me. The main character is morally strong, and the result of his strength has affected a breed of dog to a point beyond comprehension. If you own an Akita, this is a must read. If you do not own an Akita, you need to read this as well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting Tale about Saving Akitas
Comment: Heard about this book when Charlie Rose interviewed the author on his show. Apparently the Akita is a country dog bred in the mountains in Japan. During WWII, the breed was threatened--people ate them because they were starving--and this is the story of how one man formed a network of friends to save the breed and protect them. It is also the story of his family, including stories of the different dogs he saved. For dog lovers and Akita fans especially.
Customer Rating:
Summary: WOW what a wonderful book about a wonderful man....
Comment: Haven't had a dog in years but love great books about dogs and this is a great book about a dog and the man who rescued the breed from extinction.
And what a gentle man he is. Brings the word Zen to life for me. And to think he never accepted money for any of the dogs, and has lived such a simple pure life. Not only is it a story of a man saving a breed of dog, but it also has some priceless lessons about living simple, enjoying stillness and being content.
I wonder if the Japanese exchange students we have had over the years who all owned Akitas know of Morie Sawataishi.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dog Man
Comment: I bought this book because I'm very interested in dogs and had visited Japan. While the book really was about a man who saved Akitas after WWII, it was so much more. Interwoven was a very interesting history of what the Japanese endured from close to the end of the war until today. I was in awe of the hardships they faced and the tremendous number of things they achieved. I feel I'd need more than one lifetime to even approach accomplishing what they have.
The author kept the momentum going and has produced a really wonderful book that was never dull and brought life during these times alive. Effortless reading.
I have read that the Japanese take one idea and keep refining it, not just always looking for the next best thing. This is how Dog Man approached his life with dogs. Wonderful book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: If Lance Armstrong Had Been a Japanese Dog Breeder...
Comment: ...he could have been a lot like Morie Sawataishi. Singular of mind, even monomaniacal. Narcissistic. Athletic and daring. And superhuman in his talent--rescuing the Akita "snow dog" breed from annihilation during World War II.
Author Martha Sherrill manages to bring us to a sympathetic understanding of this man in her fine work Dog Man. Dog lovers will find it easier to comprehend Morie's fixation, and how he uses his beloved Akitas as an escape, even a bulwark, from his family and its war-time struggles with hunger and poverty. But Dog Man goes far beyond its esoteric main subject as we travel via Sherrill's fluid prose to Japan's fascinating post-war snow country, and bear witness as it enters the modern age. In the span of her book, the region goes from untouched country largely lacking electric power and prowled by bears and wild mountain men, to populated civilization served by bullet train. And the photos of all those beautiful dogs alone are worth the price of the hardcover. A great read that takes you far away!
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Editorial Reviews:
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How one man's consuming passion for dogs saved a legendary breed from extinction and led him to a difficult, more soulful way of life in the wilds of Japan's remote snow country
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, Martha 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.
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