Kintsugi – The art of mending with gold

Kintsugi金継ぎ is a traditional Japanese technique for repairing broken pottery, glassware, etc. using gold since “kin” means “gold” and “tsugi” means “joint or splice” . Although gold is used in its repair, the material that is mainly used is a lacquer known as urushi , which is made from the sap of the urushi tree and is a highly durable natural material, so it is also safe to use in food containers. Gold is used only for the final finish.

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One theory as to how kintsugi may have originated is when the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a damaged Chinese tea bowl to China for repair in the late 15th century that when the bowl was returned to him, it was repaired only with metal staples. This may have prompted Japanese craftsmen to seek a more aesthetic means of repair, and they did so with urushi and gold. It is said that people were so fascinated when they saw the gold-repaired bowl that they deliberately broke pottery and pottery to repair it with such a beautiful finish.

This repair process can be taken perfectly as a wabi-sabi philosophy, in which the defect or imperfection of the object is accepted and the broken part and its repair are treated as part of its history, rather than as something to cover or hide. Japanese aesthetics value wear marks from the use of objects, highlighting cracks simply as an event in the life of the object instead of allowing its function and service to end at that moment due to its damage or breakage, thus giving it a new value making it more beautiful than the original.

Kintsugi can also be related to the Japanese philosophy mushin無心 or “no mind”, which encompasses the concepts of detachment, acceptance of change and destiny as aspects of human life. Not only is it intended to highlight the damage to the object, but the repair is literally illuminated, as a kind of physical expression of the spirit of this “mushin” philosophy which is often literally translated as “mindless”, although it means that it fully exists. at the time.

The technique used to repair the object consists of joining the pieces using the Urushi and then sprinkled with gold, silver or platinum powder. Once the repair process is finished, the object comes back to life with some “scars” albeit beautiful and shiny.