26 February, 2014 2:34PM AEDT

Japanese cloth resurrected by Mary

In the textile studios of Japan, Australian-born Mary Taguchi is known as "the outside person looking in".

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This outsider has resurrected weaving and dyeing techniques which, until her intervention, were drifting towards extinction on the Japanese isles.

Mary Taguchi discovered antique "mingei" fabrics while trying to redecorate the "terribly rundown" teahouse she was living in while working as a teacher in Tokyo.

"'Min' is people and 'gei' is craft," Mary told Genevieve Jacobs on 666 Mornings. "Mingei means 'the arts of the ordinary man' in a nice translation."

At a dinner party decades ago, the headmistress of Mary's school showed her a collection of antique indigo-dyed fabrics.

Mary wanted to purchase new versions, but the headmistress explained they were no longer made by Japanese craftsmen.

Undeterred, Mary started visiting textile studios near Tokyo in her school holidays.

"I'd turn up with bits of old fabric at these weaving studios," said Mary. "Chat, chat, chat and endless cups of tea and I said to them, 'what I'm wanting is this fabric but in new bolts that I can make things from.'"

"They just kept saying 'that's very difficult,'" said Mary. "I thought, well, difficult doesn't deter me. That's alright, I'll be back."

Thinking the complexity of the processes would deter her; the craftsman began to teach Mary the old techniques of weaving and indigo dyeing and also began to restart production of mingei garments in their own workshops.

Mary now makes and sells the textiles and clothing inspired by the mingei aesthetic at her shop in Bungendore, half-an-hour's drive from Canberra.

The shop is almost completely filled with products made of blue and white - retaining the humble palette of the working class of the time.

"The elaborate colours - yellow, gold and purple - were left for the higher parts of the aristocracy," said Mary.

"Farmers, craftsman and merchants were stipulated to wear indigo because it's a blue that will actually meld and merge into the blue-green of Japanese countryside - so these workers wouldn't be marring the sight of the countryside."

They're made for working people of another millennium, so the fabrics are durable and retain their deep blue colour after repeated washes.

"I hardly ever shop, I don't go anywhere, because everything I have lasts long - it will last forever."

Mary still visits the textile artisans around Japan, now as an expert, advising them of the best methods and keeping the techniques alive.