Before it was known as the Japanese Chin, the breed was referred to as the Japanese Spaniel and was accepted by the #AKC under that name in 1888; the first dog of the breed to be recorded was known as “Jap,” owned by Fred Senn of New York City. Jap’s breeder and pedigree remain unknown to us.
The Japanese Spaniel kept that name until 1977, possibly because it wasn’t really a spaniel, but even “Japanese” was a misnomer because the breed had its basic origins in China, not Japan.
Among the first American owners of the breed were President Franklin Pierce, and then-Secretary-of-War Jefferson Davis. Worldwide attention to the breed, however, was most due to Alexandra (wife of King Edward VII of Great Britain) who received her first Chin as a gift shortly after marrying into the British Royal family in 1863. She acquired many of these dogs, and Richard Hough, one of her biographers wrote in his, “Edward & Alexandra: Their Private and Public Lives:” “She never entered a room or sat down without dogs around her, and often on her lap. When she played the piano, they would be at her feet; and there would often be one lying across her, too. There might be half a dozen of them beside her at a time, and all though they looked so similar, she never got their name wrong.”
Image of Alexandra with one of her Japanese Spaniels (Chin). This photo is from Wikicommons Media and is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927.