Eagle and Dragon Bomber Jacket 'Tenku'

A dragon and white tiger on the chest, a red phoenix on the back, black

All black, and the embroidery is the only colour. This sukajan carries the same animals as the two-tone version, a grey dragon on the left chest, a white tiger on the right, a red phoenix spreading across the whole back over a coiled grey dragon, pink cherry blossom on the shoulders and down one sleeve, but the sleeves are black like the body, and the ribbing at the collar, cuffs and hem is black striped with cream. The effect is a darker jacket where the thread does all the work.

It is the version for someone who wants the back and not the two-tone, and it is the one that goes to the evening, because black satin with a red bird on it is a night garment.

The name, Tenku, means the heavens, the sky the phoenix is flying through, and the black is that sky.

Every motif is embroidered, not printed, in dense satin stitch that stands off the cloth and catches the light differently as you move; that is the whole point of a sukajan, and it is the reason the jacket weighs what it does. The body is a satin blend with a soft sheen and a light quilted lining, and the collar, cuffs and hem are a ribbed knit, which is the construction the sukajan has had since the first ones were sewn for American sailors in Yokosuka in the late forties. It zips at the front and has a slash pocket at each hip. It washes cold, inside out, on a gentle cycle, and dries flat.

Wear it over a white tee and white trousers, as in the photograph, for the contrast, or over black for a jacket that is all bird. Nothing else patterned.

From across a street it is a black bomber with a red shape on the back. From close the phoenix has every feather, the dragon every scale, and the blossom every petal, and the cream stripes in the ribbing frame the whole thing. It is the sukajan in the range that reads sharpest in a photograph at night.

The sleeves are set in raglan, so the blossom on the left shoulder runs unbroken onto the arm, and the cream stripes at the collar, cuffs and hem are the only lines on the jacket that are not thread. It is the version of the pair for someone who already owns a two-tone sukajan and wants the dark one.

Sizes run from M to 3XL. It is cut to Asian sizing and runs small, so take one size up from your usual. Between two sizes, take the larger.