Kintsugi
lit. “golden joinery”
The Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold-dusted lacquer — making the breakage part of the object's beauty.
Origin
Dating to the late 15th century, kintsugi (also kintsukuroi) treats breaks not as flaws to hide but as part of the object's history, worth highlighting. Legend says a shogun sent a damaged Chinese tea bowl back to China for repair, was disappointed by the ugly metal staples that came back, and Japanese craftsmen devised the gold-lacquer technique in response. Tied philosophically to wabi-sabi.
Modern usage
A self-help metaphor of choice in the 2010s and 2020s — recovery from trauma, divorce, illness all get described as 'kintsugi' processes. The actual craft also remains active and increasingly visible in galleries and on social media.
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