Sculptor Takeshi Ando who created a bronze statue of storied dog Hachiko in Tokyo, which was featured in a U.S. film starring Richard Gere, died of pneumonia on Jan. 13, his family said Friday. Ando was 95.The statue of Hachiko, an Akita dog in the 1920s known for his loyalty in waiting for his deceased master for years near Shibuya Station in the Japanese capital, is now a popular meeting spot in the district.The statue unveiled in 1948 is a second monument to the dog said to have been born in Akita Prefecture in 1923 and taken to Tokyo to live with Hidesaburo Ueno, an agricultural civil e…READ FULL ARTICLE
