Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery using urushi lacquer (a natural lacquer made from the sap of the lacquer tree, a relative of poison ivy) mixed with powdered gold or silver. Unlike other methods of ceramic repair, kintsugi does not attempt to hide the breaks but instead draws attention to them. Working with urushi can be a difficult process, because special conditions, such as high humidity, are necessary for it to harden and the lacquer itself can cause skin irritation. If the original ceramic is missing small pieces, a paste (sabi urushi) made from urushi and clay powder is used to fill in the gaps. The urushi-glue mixture is applied to the cracks, and the segments are pieced back together, after which the object is left to dry and harden for one to three months. Any excess urushi is removed through abrasion with charcoal or some other method. Thin lines of colored urushi are painted onto the fractures, and metal powder is sprinkled over the surface. The result is lines of gold or silver running through the ceramic.
Kintsugi isn’t about attaining a broken pottery’s original appearance back. It’s about creating something beautiful out of something broken. So, if you accidentally break your favorite bowl, it doesn’t have to mean that the pieces go straight to the trash can. Every broken piece can be mended together and while it may not exactly look like the bowl you lost, it might just look better. As if, you treated your bowl to a little gold dust for serving you well all this time.
The origin of kintsugi is unknown. A popular story tells of the technique’s development in the late 15th century when shogun (a Japanese title meaning ‘Military Ruler’) Ashikaga Yoshimasa’s favorite Chinese tea bowl was broken. According to the tale, he sent the bowl to China to be repaired. When it returned, it was mended with staples, a practice in which metal is inserted into drilled holes on either side of the break to keep the pieces together. Yoshimasa disliked the appearance and had Japanese craftspeople come up with a new method that was more aesthetically pleasing, hence the beginnings of kintsugi.
Kintsugi serves as a bittersweet metaphor of how breaking doesn’t have to be the end of everything that once existed. It could be the end of one beautiful thing to make space for the next beautiful thing. Kintsugi is the proof that it’s the challenges we face in life, love, and relationships that makes us stronger and allows us to build a version of ourselves that otherwise would’ve never come into being.
It shows that imperfection is also equally admirable just like perfection is. So, even if it seems like everyone is better than you, that you’re no match to anybody, that you’re falling behind because you feel you’re incapable, your imperfections are what makes you, you. If you start to feel that you know it all, you’ll never grow. Sometimes, imperfections serve as the catalyst for growth and betterment. So let your imperfections be your Kintsugi.
