Women's Ink Crane Kimono Jacket 'Ashiwara'

Cranes in black silhouette over pale reeds, on the palest blue you can print

Most crane prints draw the bird white. This one draws it as a shadow. On a ground so pale it is almost white, a blue with the colour nearly washed out of it, the cranes are black silhouettes, wings spread, legs trailing, one large across the back and a flock of smaller ones scattered over the sleeves and fronts. Single black feathers drift between them. Behind the birds, grey lilies and grasses are drawn in a lighter tone, so they read as reflections. Along the hem, a band of dark teal reeds and rushes, the marsh the cranes are lifting out of.

It is the quietest of the women's crane pieces and the most graphic: two tones and a half, black, pale blue and the grey between, with no red, no gold, no blossom. The effect is a woodcut rather than a painting, and it looks as good in the evening as it does at noon, because it has no colour to change.

The name, Ashiwara, means a plain of reeds, and it is one of the oldest names for Japan itself, the land of reed plains in the founding myths. The reeds at the hem are that plain, and the cranes are leaving it.

It is printed, not embroidered, with the black kept sharp against the pale ground and the greys kept soft. The cloth is a light polyester with a smooth surface and a soft drape, chosen because a ground this pale must stay pale after washing, and because a jacket for warm days should hang light. Three-quarter sleeves, open front, no fastening, hem at the hip.

At three metres it is a pale jacket with dark birds on it. At thirty centimetres the feathers show their vanes, the lilies show their petals, and the reeds at the hem separate into single stems. It is a print built for the second look.

The cut is a short open kimono jacket for women, relaxed through the body and easy at the shoulder. Over a white tee, everything goes pale and the birds are the only dark thing in the outfit. Over black, the tee picks up the silhouettes and the jacket becomes a frame around it. It goes with white trousers, light denim, grey, and pale shoes.

It comes in one size, cut to drape with an easy fit. It is Asian sizing, so it sits closer than a Western one-size; if you are usually L or above, expect it to fit close rather than loose.