Kintsugi means gold seam which is a Japanese technique that try to repair the broken ceramic. One story is being told that it originates when shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa has send the broken ceramics back to China for repair. After these ceramics had returned back to Japan, Japanese people saw the idea of metal staple from Chinese workers. They began to appreciate the aesthetic of breakage as a part of history rather than an imperfect piece. This can be applied with Japanese philosophy, “Wabi-Sabi” which means an embracing the imperfectness.
We have visited the demonstration of Kintsugi at Maison et Objet 2015. They show the methodology of the original Kintsugi technique. From the beginning of mixing the ingredient and start repairing the breakage. It is considerably a delicate handcraft which requires patient and skill.
The technique of Kintsugi has to apply gold dust with resin or lacquer on the breakage part. Sometimes they use staple to bind two separate pieces.
They intend to emphasize the idea of loss and improvement and focus the rebirth of new piece. The Japanese values the art of imperfect and prolong the beauty of object.
Maison et Objet 2015