The hikeshi banten is a firefighter's half-coat: layers of cotton overdyed near-black in indigo, quilted with white sashiko running stitch, soaked in water before a man went up on the roof. The cloth is heavy, absorbent and deliberately unbeautiful on the working face.

Its whole graphic argument is one mark. A brigade crest and its iroha syllable, cut thick enough to read through smoke from a rooftop, sit centred on the back panel. Turn the coat inside out after the fire and the hidden lining is a painted scene in mineral pigment — the reward face.