One of the first Akita Blog visitors goes by the nick name ‘Peking Foxie’. She’s is a huge Akita fan and I’ve written about her Akita drawings in a previous post. Let’s see what she’s working on now….

She has just finished a reference sheet for an Akita character named ‘Icefur’. The first one she did was the snow leopard ‘Frostfur’.

The next character will be an arctic fox.

T-Nell, a semi professional photographer, she also happens to by my aunt , has chosen a picture of Kensho to participate in a photo contest. This contest is held by Canon and you can vote as per May, 5th 2008. Please visit the photo contest website and help to get this picture of Kensho high up in the rankings! . Just use the button in the lower right corner on this page.
This first picture is submitted in the category Animals & Light, because the sun is so beautiful when it highlights the red pigments in Kensho’s coat.

Another candidate picture could have been this one:

Please don’t forget to go and vote for Kensho on May 5th.
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Just follow these simple steps and I’ll give you Karma points!

1. Visit the Canon contest website and sign up as a new user.
2. Check you mail account to find and click the activation link.
3. Go to Kensho’s picture and vote.

Today I found this amazing gallery of an Akita fan: Pekingin-Ankka’s deviantART gallery (I linked to it from here but unfortunately her account is no longer active).

She draws and shapes different kinds of material into Akita’s. Mostly drawings and plushies but you can even get an Akita tail to accompany you best suit or see marzipan Akita candy.

It’s very clear that this Finnish girl, Terella Tanskanen, just loves to draw Akitas. At the moment she is researching this beautiful breed to write an essay for school.

Are you perhaps wondering why I’m showing the larger version of this one, named ‘Forbidden Love‘?

Have a look at this picture of my Akita ‘Kensho’ with my cat ‘Tommie’.

Do you recognize this one?

It’s Akita ‘Gin’ from the Japanese anime series ‘Silver Fang’ sitting in a bowl of soup, hence the name “Miso Dog Soup”.

The Akita drawings are published with permission from Terella and I wish her all the best of luck with the Akita essay.

I’ve asked her why she is drawing Akita’s and here is her reply:

“I drew the pictures because the Akita is my favorite breed. I think that the Akita is a beautiful and nice dog.

I fell in love with Akitas when I went to work for an Akita breeder and I took care of their Akitas, two adult females and two puppies. There were many other dogs from different breeds at the kennel but only the Akitas truly touched my heart. Akita is also very exotic because it originates from an exotic country.

I don´t have an Akita myself because my apartment is too small but I´m waiting eagerly the day when I can buy a big apartment and finally get an Akita. For now I dream and put my love of Akitas into artwork because that is my way of handling feelings and thoughts.”

And she’s also very enthusiastic about my two Akita devoted sites (although one of them is an oldie in Dutch) :

“Your site seems very good and I registered there. It´s so great that you decided to start a site like this.

Oh, so it´s you who hosts that Akita picture site. I found it some time ago and it must be the best Akita picture site in the world. I hope you update it often or put new pictures to this new site.”

Do you know of any other Akita artists? Do you want to show off your work at Akita Blog? Let me know about it!

Use the comments section on each blog post to give your opinion.

Kino’s Journey: the Beautiful World (キノの旅 -the Beautiful World-, Kino no Tabi -the Beautiful World), shortened to Kino’s Journey, is a Japanese light novel series written by Keiichi Sigsawa, with illustrations by Kohaku Kuroboshi. The series was published in 2000 and since a Playstation version and animated movie have been produced.

The main protagonist in the series, Kino travels to different countries with her talking motorrad Hermes, discovering their cultures and people. In the anime (Japanese animation), Kino’s gender is ambiguous in the beginning, but is later confirmed to be female in the episode “Land of Adults”. Her original name is hinted to be that of a flower in the Land of Adults, and Kino is a name she adopts after meeting Hermes.

The character ‘Riku’ is an Akita dog.

This talking Akita dog travels with Shizu. He is large, white, and always smiles! (as Akitas do )

The “beautiful world” Kino travels through almost always has its dark side. Often the countries Kino visits are places where the populace is oppressed, where a tragedy has occurred, or where the culture has become extremely strange because the rulers or people sought to do what they believed was right.

A phrase repeated in the anime and novels is “the world is not beautiful, therefore it is” (世界は美しくなんかない。そしてそれ故に美しい。, Sekai wa utsukushiku nanka nai. Soshite sore yueni utsukushii.) symbolizes how the dark aspects of life, such as oppression and tyranny, make the good and happy parts of life all the more precious and wonderful.

Sorry, no sign of Riku in this introduction sample of the movie.

In Japan the Akita is regarded as a token for good luck.

Silver Fang (1986), a 21-episode anime series, is based on a manga of the same name in 1984 created by Yoshihiro Takahaski. He was reportedly inspired by a news article which told of hunting dogs that had been abandoned by their masters and had begun living as wild animals…

This Japanese anime tells the story of an Akita Inu pup called Gin (Japanese for ‘silver’) who leaves his master, a young boy named Daisuke, to join a pack of wild dogs. The pack is gathering strong dogs from all over Japan to fight a deranged bear named Akakabuto and his minions.

The story begins from the point of view of the humans, but swings to the dogs with episode 7 of the anime. It is in that episode that the audience hears the dogs communicating with each other through speech, though it continues to be barks and whines to human ears.

This anime has become extremely popular in the Nordic countries (Finland, Denmark and Sweden) and has been dubbed in multiple other countries.

Other dogs from the film include: a German Shepherd, a Great Dane, A Weinmaraner, a Cocker Spaniel, a Japanese Kai Ken dog, a Rough Collie, a Siberian Husky, a Dachshund, a Japanese Tosa Inu fighting dog and a Japanese Kishu Inu dog.