Together with a long academic involvement in Japanese language teaching methodology, Mary Taguchi has simultaneously had much involvement in the history and function of Japanese indigo-dyed cotton textiles.
Mingei, the crafts movement of the 1920s in Japan, acknowledges the unconscious arts of anonymous craftsmen; simple, beautiful, functional wares for everyday use, made from clay, cotton, bast fibres, wood, metal and bamboo.
It is indigo dye that makes the beautiful blues of the rustic country cotton textiles of Japan. Working with dyers and weavers of families who have spent a lifetime in this work, Mary Taguchi has researched and collected patterns from the past. She has been instrumental in the revival of a number of these cloths.
