1/ I hereby petition for a return to the sartorial standards of firefighters in Edo period Japan.

A compilation of the coats worn by Edo firefighting brigades, each rich with its own symbolism.

2/ Typically, firefighters would soak these cotton jackets in water before attending to their duties. This offered some measure of bodily protection, though I'm guessing not much.

Here's a spider hovering over a go board, from the story of the warrior-hero Minamoto no Yorimitsu

3/ They were reversible so that firefighters could protect these ornate patterns from fire damage. They'd do their work plain-side out.

Here's a coat decorated with the image of Zhang Shun, a figure associated with bravery

4/ A scene depicting the hero Musashibo Benkei's fight with an evil carp (how this relates to fire suppression, IDK?)

5/ A young warrior confronting the fire spirit (a bit more on message)

6/ Tiger and dragon motif

7/ A scene of the Toad Spirit teaching the robber magic (again, really don't see the tie-in here, but who needs one really?)

8/ For a great overview of the social history of firefighting in Edo, see Steve Wills and Jordan Sand's chapter here:

https://brill.com/view/journals/bki/171/4/article-p563_8.xml?language=en

A much larger collection of these jackets can be found here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/japanese-firemans-coats-19th-century