Yu Matsu is the owner of a blog and Twitter which documents the daily life of his three shiba inu. The trio, Hinata, Aoi and Sora, are a viral hit in Japan, the famous shibes even have their own line of merchandise.

Usually shiba inus are portrayed as cheeky and cheerful, but this photoshoot has a slightly more sombre tone.

Most of the time, a walk is a cause of great celebration for a dog, but it seemed that this particular day, their hometown was subject to a downpour which put a bit of a damper on their fun.

Just the presence of the raincoat was enough to let the dogs know that their walk wasn’t going to be the usual frolic, but more likely to be a wet and cold-footed amble around the block.

It's usually difficult to put coats on dogs just before a walk, due to them jumping around in excitement, but according to the owner the dogs were uncharacteristically compliant.

Once the coats were on the owner decided to snap some photos of the shibas’ depressed states.

They look so cute, but so sad.

One dog who was ready to play was the youngest of the siblings, Sora, possibly due to the unshakable energy of youth.

Although they engaged in some amateur dramatics initially, the owner assured everyone that the two did actually have fun on the walk in the end.

If you are resident in Japan, you can get your own cushion version of Hinata, Aoi or Sora from the grape SHOP.