The Nihon Ken Standard


I've been in discussion with the Japan Kennel Club for two years now regarding correcting the large errors in some of the FCI standards for the Japanese breeds. It's been a bit of a merry go round since the FCI will not fix the standards unless they receive a request to do so from the JKC. The JKC is working on writing proper standards for the Nihon Ken, so prefers to leave the issues uncorrected until they send the new standards to the FCI.

When I first brought the errors to the attention of the JKC, they did seem concerned and interested in correcting them. But after a few conversations, the reply I received was that they were working on new standards, so to please give them a bit of time. I was hopeful that this process would take a year or two (as that is the time frame they were looking at), and these issues would be sorted out.

Well here we are two years later. I called the JKC today, and apparently there are still no new standards. They are stuck because NIPPO measures a dog's height at the back of the shoulder (the lowest point), while worldwide, dogs are measured at the highest point. I plead with them today that if they are going to take several more years to sort out the standards, to please in the mean time at least request that the FCI correct the errors in their published standards. The JKC standards are bare bone, and lacking, but they are at least correct. I don't know who translated the standards for the FCI or was overseeing the process, but there are some very basic errors in the standards that would have been noticed by an average proofreader or translator.

1. The Shikoku standard is missing coat colors (red, black & tan)
2. Shikoku bitches are incorrectly listed at 46cm (the standard for Kishu and Shikoku should be 52cm males, 49cm females
3. Kishu bitches are also incorrectly listed at 46cm
4. Kai are incorrectly listed at males 53cm, and females 48cm (where in god's good earth did they come up with these ridiculous numbers?)
5. Shiba are listed at males 40cm, females 37cm (just slightly off from the JKC standard of 39.5/36.5)
6. There is no call for 'urajiro' in the Shikoku standard.

I'm going to keep bugging the JKC every month this year, until I see some action. I'll be at the FCI show in Tokyo on Saturday, so maybe I'll start there.

Comments

  1. Yeah, the size in Kaï is a problem ! Thankfully for the moment, in France, there is not too much Kaï of this size !
    Thanks for working on it !

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  2. Well for kai, in france they don't give attention about FCI's size standard for the confirmation. I told them about the wrong FCI's size and the "new" JKC's size and the story about the KKA.
    But he would be great to have a REAL size like that they can judge on it and won't blame a normal size kai and won't prefer a high size kai instead ...

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  3. All my Kais have get mention that they are way too small in dog show :P. Thanks Shigeru for working with this :). You're best!

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  4. Yes, I find the Kai standard to be hilariously off size. I'll keep bugging the JKC, but stuff like this has so much red tape attached to it.

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  5. Another problem with the FCI Shiba standard is the lack of any mention whatsoever of kan'i, ryousei or soboku, or definitions of those terms. This urgently needs to be corrected.

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    1. Here is explained those words :) http://nihonken.blogspot.fi/2014/03/hunting-and-nihon-ken.html#comment-form

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    2. I am aware of the meaning of these words. The trouble is that none of them appear in the FCI standard. It only says: "The temperament is faithful, with keenness in sense and high alertness." This could be interpreted as a vague half-definition of kan'i and ryousei but soboku is still not covered at all.

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  6. But the way to measure dogs is different in Japan it isnt?

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  7. Could they just add in the standards something like:
    Height of the dog (measured at the back of the shoulder, the lowest point), males 39,5cm, females 36,5cm
    Instead of adding a random calculation of shoulder heigh difference?

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    1. The exact wording of the FCI Shiba standard is as follows:
      "Height at withers : Dogs 40 cm.
      Bitches 37 cm.
      There is a tolerance of 1,5 cm smaller or taller."
      Looking at it this way, you could almost think of that extra half a cm as being built in to correct for the adjustment of the point of measurement from the back of the shoulder blade à la Nippo to the withers (top of shoulder blade) à la FCI. Whether this was intentional or not I cannot say with authority, but I sort of suspect it might not have been an accident. Personally I do not object to this 5mm difference as much as I object to the kan'i/ryousei/soboku issue, or the huge errors in the sizes given for some of the other breeds.

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    2. Apparently it would just not be right for the JKC to just add in the standard that the Japanese breeds should be measured at the back of the shoulder. I have no idea why not.

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    3. And yes, I agree that it seems someone was making allowance for measuring higher up on the shoulder with that extra 5mm (and it's not a big deal anyway). And it's true, a huge part of the breeds is 'honshitsu', which is the kan'i/ryousei/soboku issue. I've seen some very beautiful dogs bred overseas, but I think many kennels do not have an understanding of what they need to be preserving or breeding toward.

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  8. Educational material released by Nippo by means of the website would be hugely helpful in improving overseas breeders' understanding of their goals. Many breeders, especially in certain countries, actively pooh-pooh Nippo though. "I don't like Japanese type" is a phrase I've heard from breeders more often than you'd imagine. National pride plays a huge role in this attitude.

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    1. A while ago I spoke to NIPPO about whether they would publish an official English standard. The answer was no. They undertook that project at one point, but were unsatisfied with the translation. To be quite frank, how the breeds are faring overseas does not seem to be too high on NIPPO's list of priorities at the moment.

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