Doge Community 'Own The Doge' Is Installing Kabosu Dog’s Statue in Japan

An engaged NFT community that holds the original ‘doge’ meme is working with local governments to install an actual statue that pays homage to Kabosu, the dog that inspired the meme.

The statue will be unveiled on Nov. 2 in Sakura, Japan, on Kabosu’s birthday in collaboration with the City of Sakura, community members told CoinDesk. It is planned to be placed in Sakura Furusato Square, where Kabosu’s parent often takes her on walks.

Fans of Kabosu, the Japanese Shiba Inu dog who inspired the Doge meme and Dogecoin, last year raised money to build the statue – and even want to place it on the moon one day.

“We've been operating for over two years, bringing Doge to places she's never been, including Hollywood, EDM bangers and space (The Doge NFT going on a SpaceX mission to moon),” tridog of PleasrDAO, the community that owns the NFT, told CoinDesk in an email.

“Our goal is to become THE Doge gathering place online for all of the Doge and meme community,” they added.

The community plans to hold interactive events to celebrate the occasion. Attendees will also get to meet the Sato, as well as be rewarded certain privileges based on their NFT holdings.

PleasrDAO, a set of NFT collectors who buy high-priced NFTs and build communities, including Own The Doge, regard DOGE as a short form of ‘Do Only Good Everyday.’ They donate to meaningful charities across the world, with Own The Doge listed as the top crypto giver to Save The Children.

Own The Doge is also working on a doge documentary featuring Kabosu’s life and the meme’s rise.

The doge meme came to life when Atsuko Sato clicked a picture of Kabosu for her blog in 2010. It went viral when John Monarch, the poster who shared that photo from Atsuko's blog, first christened her with the name "doge" on Reddit.

That has since become a part of internet culture and was among the first memes. It later spurred the creation of dogecoin in 2013 – and other dog-themed tokens in the years following – with such tokens commanding a market capitalization of tens of billions of dollars at peak popularity.

CORRECTION (Oct. 5, 2023, 15:28 UTC): Fixes spelling of Kabosu's name.