A Dog of Flanders is one of Belgium’s strangest cultural phenomena. When Marie Louise de la Ramée published the book in 1872 (under the pen name Ouida), she had discovered on a day-trip to Antwerp that large dogs were forced to pull carts full of wares for their owners – a common activity at the time. An animal rights activist, her book was a scathing critique of Flanders told through the story of a boy named Nello and his dog Patrasche.

The book ends tragically, with Flanders allowing Nello and Patrasche to freeze to death in the bitter cold of Christmas Eve. It’s no wonder that the book was not taken up by the Flemish. Despite a few Dutchlanguage adaptations, there has never even been a proper translation.

However, there are 300 printings of the book in translation – in Japanese. The story is a legend in Japan; it’s taught in schools, sold as dozens of different products and was the subject of a year-long 1970s animated television series, whose final episode was seen by 30 million people. It is one of the country’s most beloved stories – you will not find a Japanese man, woman or child who does not know A Dog of Flanders.

Just what caused this national pride in the story was explored by filmmakers An van. Dienderen and Didier Volckaert in their 2007 documentary Patrasche: A Dog of Flanders – made in Japan. Now the pair have launched an exhibition on the subject in Antwerp and published the very first official Dutch translation of the book. With essays on the atmosphere of Antwerp in the 1870s, the impact of the novel in Japan and the life of Ouida, the book also includes the original English text.

The exhibition, meanwhile, proves much about national cultures: images from A Dog of Flanders say more about the culture that produced them than about Flanders.

A Dog of Flanders:
A Never-Before-Seen Look at Flanders
Until 29 August
Koningin Fabiolazaal
Jezusstraat 28, Antwerp 
www.dogofflanders.be