I was talking with Finley last night about customizing clothing, something she’s really been into in the last couple of years, and mentioned a jean jacket I had in high school that I customized myself. At the time, most of the burnouts in school sewed a section of a concert T-shirt into the back panel of their jean jacket, or had a talented friend paint the scene on the fabric with acrylic paint: lots of Iron Maiden, Slayer, or Metallica. I was really into Frank Miller comics at that point—a series called Lone Wolf and Cub was popular and he was doing cover art for the western manga reprints. His style for these was very woodblock/pen and ink inspired, and I started researching Ukiyo-e art at the library. The usual masters were always represented, but one artist stood out to me: a late-period artist named Yoshitoshi, whose style clearly influenced Miller and who stood out among his predecessors.

I scoured the libraries in the area and found a book of his prints somewhere locally—then kept renewing it until I had to give it back. I studied all of the prints in the book and whatever I could learn from his style—at that point attempting my own crude woodblock prints with no press, basic inks, and no means of registration. One print stood out among the hundreds, and I chose this to paint on the back of my jacket: Fujiwara no Yasumasa Playing the Flute, a triptych which depicts a musician and his outlaw brother in a scene from a kabuki play. The linework, color, and use of pattern are phenomenal, and I thought it would look good on blue denim. Over a couple of evenings I painted the jacket, and I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

As the years passed, I lost track of the jacket; I don’t remember what happened to it, but I’d love to have it back, if nothing more than to give to Finley. I bet she’d like it.