Eastern Philosophy
Kintsugi金継ぎ
The word given to this tradition of ceramic repair is kintsugi: Kin = golden tsugi = joinery. It means, literally, ‘to
join with gold’. In Zen aesthetics, the broken pieces of an accidentally-smashed pot should be carefully picked up,
reassembled and then glued together with lacquer inflected with a very luxuriant gold powder. There should be no attempt
to disguise the damage, the point is to render the fault-lines beautiful and strong. The precious veins of gold are
there to emphasise that breaks have a philosophically-rich merit all of their own.
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In an age that worships youth, perfection and the new, the art of kintsugi retains a particular wisdom – as applicable to our own lives as it is to a broken tea cup. The care and love expended on the shattered pots should lend us the confidence to respect what is damaged and scarred, vulnerable and imperfect – starting with ourselves and those around us.
