Men's Ink Wash Kimono 'Bokuseki'

Ink brushed in arcs across grey, from dense black to watered grey, all round

Someone took a wide brush to this kimono. Arcs and sweeps of black ink curve across a mid-grey ground, dense where the brush was full and broken into dry streaks where it ran out, with pale grey washes between them, so the cloth reads as a large ink painting wrapped round the body. Nothing on it is a picture of anything. It is the movement of a brush, printed. The obi is plain grey, wide and flat, and it gives the eye a rest at the waist.

It is the most painterly piece in the collection and one of the strongest, because it borrows the look of sumi-e, the ink painting that Japan learned from China and made its own, without borrowing a single motif from it. The strokes could be waves, or wind, or nothing. That is the idea.

The name, Bokuseki, means traces of ink, the word for the brushed calligraphy of Zen monks, where the stroke matters more than the word. On this kimono there are no words, only the strokes.

It is printed, not painted, with the dry-brush edges kept rough so the ink looks brushed rather than drawn. The cloth is polyester with a dry hand and a slight texture, chosen because a grey with this much black on it must not go muddy through washing, and because a kimono for the warm months should hang light.

The obi is included. Cross the fronts left over right, wrap the grey obi twice at the waist and knot it at the hip. The plain obi across the painted cloth reads like a frame, and it is where the composition settles.

The cut is long, falling to the ankle, with wide square sleeves and the room to move. Worn at home it is a robe that looks like a gallery wall. Worn out with black sandals it is an outfit that no one will read as a costume and everyone will read as considered.

At three metres it is a grey robe with dark movement across it. At thirty centimetres the strokes show their dry edges and the places the brush lifted, and the grey between them shows its wash. It is built to be looked at twice and it survives the second look.

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