Cambodia’s ancient handwoven silk industry, once among the world’s finest, was fading into oblivion before Japanese textiles expert Kikuo Morimoto came along.

In a country racked by poverty and the lingering ravages of civil war, few Cambodians were involved in silk production, and the art of silk weaving was fading.

Commissioned by UNESCO to survey the status of traditional Cambodian silk making in 1994, Morimoto came upon a rural village, where he saw elderly women selling silk weavings to middlemen for nearly nothing. By purchasing their products for higher prices, Morimoto set about restoring and re-creating traditional silk production—and a way of life.

It was an experience that would indelibly change the Japanese textile expert’s life, as well as those of scores