Japanese Ceramic Repair Technique

Poetically translated to golden joinery kintsugi or kintsukuroi is the centuries old japanese art of fixing broken pottery rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive the kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold silver or platinum.

Japanese ceramic repair technique.

This tradition known as kintsugi meaning golden seams or kintsukuroi golden repair is still going strong. Kintsugi 金継ぎ golden joinery also known as kintsukuroi 金繕い golden repair 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 a method similar to the maki e technique. Some four or five centuries ago in japan a lavish technique emerged for repairing broken ceramics. Subtle kintsugi repairs on this 19th century glazed.

Artisans began using lacquer and gold pigment to put shattered vessels back together. More than merely a craft technique kintsugi is an outgrowth of the japanese philosophy of wabi sabi a belief in the beauty of imperfections. Kintsugi proposes that repair can make things better than new. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something.

Most repairs hide themselves the goal is usually to make something as good as new. The translation from japanese of kintsugi or kintsukuroi means golden joinery or repair with gold where the gold powder is applied on lacquer some refer to it as kintsugi art with a metaphor of kintsugi life re birth or wabi sabi philosophy this technique transforms broken ceramic or pottery into beautiful. It dates from the 15th century.