A lifetime ago (13 or 14 years ago to be a bit more exact) I sat in a stuffy classroom in Tenri, Japan, and started penning my first essay in Japanese. Not having yet learned any kanji, I wrote it entirely in the phonetic alphabet known as hiragana. It began something like this: One day I walked to the main worship hall and saw a purple dog…
Thus, the legend of the murasaki inu (purple dog) was born. It was a recurring theme in later essays (four years worth to be exact) as well as many blues/enka jams (anata ha tashika ni aru / watashi no murasaki inu) when Cosmic Buddha would rock abandoned parking lots, smoky music studios, and our guitarist’s cram school late at night.
Well guess what?
I saw a purple dog today. A purple dog, here in Mahasarakham, Thailand. (Nam and I were taking my mom to see the fish sanctuary, so I have witnesses.)
I don’t think it was naturally purple. It looked like purple iodine solution (used for disinfecting wounds) had been liberally applied to a shaggy white dog, but that’s not the point. It was a purple dog.
That is all.
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
yup, it was a very violet shade of purple! I think I recall your obachan getting a novice hair dye job in Hawaii once, and ending up with purple hair, too.
Thanks for a cool visit, purple dog and big sucky catfish included!
no picture?
Alas, the wife couldn’t pull out her phone in time for a snap. You’ll just have to take my word that purple dogs do exist.
I took a picture of a purple dog a few years ago in Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok. I will show you when I found the pic. Yeah, they do excist in this world. Only enlightened people can see em.