Japanese Art With Gold

Although kintsugi repair makes it appear as though the original piece was mended with gold the original process is essentially a form of lacquer art.

Japanese art with gold. 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. The japanese art of fixing broken pieces of pottery with gold. 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. Sackler gallery in washington d c.

The origins of kintsugi are uncertain but it s likely that the practice became commonplace in japan during the late 16th or early 17th centuries noted louise cort curator of ceramics at the smithsonian s freer gallery of art and arthur m. Its beginnings are often associated with the famed tale of a 15th century japanese military ruler whose antique. Disappointed the shogun enlisted a japanese craftsmen to come up with a more aesthetically pleasing solution and kintsugi was born. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something.