Japanese Art Of Broken Things

Kintsugi 金継ぎ golden joinery also known as kintsukuroi 金繕い golden repair is the japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold silver or platinum a method similar to the maki e technique.

Japanese art of broken things. Yet there is an alternative a japanese practice that highlights and enhances the breaks thus. The word kintsugi literally means golden joinery. Transforming broken things into works of beauty is a beautiful art to imitate in our own personal lives. When a pot breaks instead of throwing it away japanese craftsmen repair it with gold lacquer and understand that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

When a bowl teapot or precious vase falls and breaks into a thousand pieces we throw them away angrily and regretfully. This artwork is somewhat based on the positive mindset of japanese people who consider breakage and repair as an object s history rather than keeping it behind the veil. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. The japanese art of embracing broken and flawed things you often hear people saying we should see a glass of water half full than half empty.

Kintsukuroi or kintsugi is the japanese art of repairing pottery or ceramic objects with lacquer adhesive mixed with powdered gold.