Kintsugi
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The 400+ year old Japanese art of kintsugi (golden repair) or kintsukuroi (golden joinery) is a pottery repair method that honors the artifact’s unique history by emphasizing, not hiding, the break.
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the area of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum.
Philosophy
editThe philosophy behind Kinttsugi is to value an object's beauty as well as its imperfection focusing on them as something to celebrate not disguise.
Kintsugi and wabi sabi
editWabi sabi is about celebrating imperfections and living simply. “Everyone goes through tough times and leading a life of perfection isn’t necessarily realistic,” Kumai says. In Japanese, wabi means alone and sabi is the passage of time. Together, they teach us how to embrace the good and bad parts of ourselves and the asymmetry of life. Dr. Rachel O’Neill, LPCC, a therapist at Talkspace, says, “Embracing the imperfect means that we celebrate our strengths. This shift of mindset, from striving for an impossible ideal to embracing our strengths, leads to a more positive and strength-oriented mindset.”
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Japanese Art
editKintsugi, also known as kintsukuroi, is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum; the method is similar to the maki-e technique.Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. Every break is unique and instead of repairing an item like new, the 400-year-old technique actually highlights the "scars" as a part of the design. Using this as a metaphor for healing ourselves teaches us an important lesson: Sometimes in the process of repairing things that have broken, we actually create something more unique, beautiful and resilient.