Moon and Blossom Sukajan 'Mikazuki'

A crescent moon and a gold dragon through pink blossom, blue or beige sleeves

The moon on this sukajan is a thin crescent, embroidered in gold on the left chest with a cloud beneath it, and on the back it rises again over a gold dragon coiling through pink cherry blossom that spills down both sleeves. On the right chest, a red chrysanthemum drawn large. Black body, sleeves in deep blue in the photograph, or in beige in the other version, and the ribbing striped to match.

It is the softest of the dragon sukajan, because the blossom takes up as much room as the animal, and the gold-and-pink palette is a spring one rather than a storm.

The name, Mikazuki, is the three-day moon, the thinnest crescent, the one on the chest and the one over the dragon's head.

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, or over navy with the blue version for a jacket that is all one blue and a gold animal. Nothing else with a pattern.

From across a street it is a black-and-blue bomber with pink on the sleeves and a gold shape on the back. From close the dragon has every scale in gold thread, the blossom every petal in three pinks, and the chrysanthemum on the chest every one of its petals. It is the sukajan for someone who wants a dragon and a garden on the same jacket.

The sleeves are set in raglan, and the blossom on the back spills onto them so the arms are pink from the shoulder to the elbow, which on the blue version reads as a spring sky and on the beige as a spring morning. The moon on the chest is gold thread, thin as a nail paring.

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