Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with
lacquer mixed with a precious metal, usually gold, silver or platinum.
The technique celebrates the history of the object and, rather than
disguising a repair, highlights it and makes it beautiful.
Kintsugi has come to the West, where it found fertile ground through
its kinship with the current trend of 'make do and mend', as well as for
its lyrical metaphoric loading, which has been used in areas such as
psychology and therapy, well-being, music, and emotional healing and
spirituality. It is also being presented as a model for sustainability.
This book explains what traditional kintsugi is and how it is done,
giving historical examples and using interviews of traditional
kintsugi masters in Japan. It reflects on the possible reasons for its
development, looking especially at a cultural attitude of "creativity
through destruction." Different kinds of repairs will be discussed,
including the earlier "staple" repair often seen in Chinese ceramic
wares and the development of yobitsugi, in which shards from different
vessels are pieced together in a patchwork, and other kintsugi
techniques.
The underlying concept of kintsugi, which encompasses the wabi
aesthetic of accepting the imperfect, has struck a chord in other fields
such as fine art, textiles, graphics, and product design. The metaphoric
richness of a broken pot made stronger and more beautiful is both
universal and deeply personal. The book will discuss how this is being
used in music and literature, with the inclusion of short works of
fiction and/or poetry separating the chapters.
There have been recent ceramic exhibitions with a kintsugi theme,
including "Golden Seams" at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery in
Washington DC. Other exhibitions outside of ceramics that have had a
kintsugi theme include a photography and installation piece by Koo
Stark at the Leica Gallery, London. An example of its metaphoric
application can be seen in the Radio 4 programme, 'Mending Cracks of
Gold' (part of the series Something Understood, which presents
'ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger
questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through
music, prose and poetry'), for which Bonnie was a contributor. There
have been two TED Talks about kintsugi.
