Japanese Art Of Fixing Broken Things

To find beauty in broken things is the spirit of wabi sabi at least according to muneaki shimode a young artisan from kyoto who practices kintsugi the word is written as 金継ぎwith kin meaning gold while tsugi means to connect as in connect to the word or connect to generations.

Japanese art of fixing broken things. Kintsugi is the japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections you can create an even stronger more. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something to disguise. 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. The name of the technique is derived from the words kin golden and tsugi joinery which translate to mean golden repair.

The philosophy behind the technique is to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it. Kintsugi is a centuries old japanese art of repairing broken pottery and transforming it into a new work of art with gold the traditional metal used in kintsugi. Lacquerware is a longstanding tradition in japan at some point it may have been combined. It s the japanese art of repairing broken ceramics using a special lacquer mixed with gold silver or platinum.

As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. Poetically translated to golden joinery kintsugi or kintsukuroi is the centuries old japanese art of fixing broken pottery rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive the kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold silver or platinum.