The Japanese concept for celebrating imperfection and brokenness is wabi-sabi, the philosophy of finding beauty in the imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete, and Kintsugi – the art of repairing broken pottery with gold – is a sublime practice of that philosophy.
In a world driven by constant consumption, kintsugi asks us not only to consider what we throw away but to reflect on why we do so. People often think that if something is broken, it should be discarded and replaced. Kintsugi asks us to pause, to listen to the cracks and the stores they carry. It asks us to reimagine how a broken pot can be made beautiful again by mending it with love and care. For centuries, this is how treasured broken things are repaired in Japan – with urishi lacquer and powered gold, lovingly highlighting the cracks instead of hiding them. Kintsugi is more than a technique; it is a moving metaphor of how what is broken can be healed and made beautiful again. As kintsugi artist and teacher Yuki Otani puts it, “kintsugi isn’t just about objects; it is a way of being, a lens for how we see beauty in the world and how we chose to live in it.”
Featured below are three examples of Kintsugi-repaired bowls from the Museum of Modern Ceramics SG collection (https//momc-sg.com).
Watch: Kintsugi: The Japanese Philosophy of Loving Imperfections