| The Shiba Inu (柴犬,
Shiba Inu also
called the Shiba Ken) is the smallest of the six original
and distinct breeds of dog from Japan. A small, agile dog that copes very
well with mountainous terrain, the Shiba Inu was originally bred for
hunting. It is similar in appearance to the Akita, though much smaller in
stature. Inu is the Japanese word for dog, but the "Shiba"
prefix's origin are less clear. The word shiba usually refers to a
type of red shrub. This leads some to believe that the Shiba was named
with this in mind, either because the dogs were used to hunt in wild
shrubs, or because the most common color of the Shiba Inu is a red color
similar to that of the shrubs. However, in old Japanese, the word shiba
also had the meaning of "small", thus this might be a reference to the
dog's small size. Therefore, the Shiba Inu is sometimes translated as
"Little Brushwood Dog".
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
