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A , also known as souvenir jacket or tour jacket, is a type of satin Blouson often embroidered with Orientalism motifs that originated in post-World War II occupied Japan.
Modeled after varsity jackets, they were originally a souvenir created by Japanese craftspeople for American servicemen stationed in Japan. The sukajan was later adopted by Japanese working-class youth culture as an act of rebellion, and has since endured in popularity both in Japan and abroad.
Originally, sukajan were meant as a souvenir from a tour of duty, hence their other popular names: souvenir and tour jackets. Initially they were made on commission, either by embroidering the servicemen's own military Flight jacket, or from scratch. Modeled after bombers, varsity, and baseball jackets, they were crafted using lustrous materials like rayon and, more commonly, silk. When silk was not available, as was often the case due to silk shortages in Japan at the time, nylon, acetate, and even leftover parachute silk were used instead.
Noticing their popularity, Kosho & Co.—a textile trading company later renamed to TOYO Enterprise—started mass-producing sukajan and selling them at street stalls and Post exchange, making 95% of all sukajan produced in the immediate post-war period. The jackets were produced in the nearby towns of Kiryū and Ashikaga by skilled artisans from Japan's traditional kimono industry, which had been disrupted by the war.
The embroidered designs were typically prominently displayed on the back, with additional motifs appearing on the chest and sleeves. The fusion of Eastern and Western elements reflected the garment's Transculturalism origins and was a deliberate form of self-orientalism, enacted as a marketing strategy in the context of Japan's difficult post-war economic recovery.: "This strategy of self-orientalism reinforced and circulated particular stereotypes of Japan and demonstrates an awareness of the marketability in, and hoped-for profitability from, such references in the desperate economic climes of postwar Japan.": "In a sombre viewing of this jacket while visiting TOYO Enterprises’ archives, I asked what the embroiderers would have thought in stitching the starbursts above Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The grave reply suggested that economic necessity overruled sentiment in the desperate postwar climate."
While the popularity of sukajan was initially limited to the areas near the naval base, it skyrocketed after sukajan were donned by the main character of the 1961 Japanese film Pigs and Battleships, which follows the misadventures of a wanna-be yakuza around the naval base and its nearby red light district, which further increased their association with delinquency.
By 1967, sukajan spread to Tokyo and beyond thanks to the sukaman movement becoming more popular. They were often worn as an act of rebellion against the mainstream Ivy style favored by middle-class youth.
Celebrities like Mick Jagger, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Wiz Khalifa, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Hideo Kojima (among others) have worn sukajan, contributing to their popularity.
In the film Drive (2011), Ryan Gosling wears a white quilted sukajan with a large golden scorpion on the back. The inspiration for the jacket came from one of Gosling's own sukajan, but the jacket featured in the movie was custom made, with 13 copies used throughout the movie. The white scorpion sukajan became iconic and, since the original was not commercially available, it led to numerous replicas and imitations.
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