We are really enjoying having them back with us
are two theories on the origin of the Japanese Chin or Japanese Spaniel.
One is that it derives from Pekingese-like dogs brought to Japan by Zen Buddhist monks in the AD 500s, and the other that it descends from a lapdog sent as a present in AD 732 to the Emperor of Japan from Korea.
It is not dissimilar to the Pekingese, but is longer in the leg and lighter. Whatever its ancestry, for more than 1,000 years this little dog was a favorite of Japanese emperors who decreed that it should be worshiped.
is said that smaller Chins were sometimes kept in hanging cages like pet
birds. Two Japanese Chins were presented to Queen Victoria by Commodore
Perry, an American naval commander, on his return from the Far East in