Fixing Ceramics With Gold

Rather than disguising the breakage kintsugi restores.

Fixing ceramics with gold.

Kintsugi the japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold kaushik patowary may 28 2014 2 comments most people would like damages to their broken items to be concealed and hidden by repair making the object look like new. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan. The history of kintsugi. The origins of kintsugi are uncertain but it s likely that the practice became commonplace in japan during the late 16th or early 17th centuries noted louise cort curator of ceramics at the smithsonian s freer gallery of art and arthur m.

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. Kintsugi or kintsukori dates back to the 15th century when according to legend shogun ashikaga yoshimasa broke his favorite chawan a chinese ceramic tea bowl and sent it back to china for repair it was returned and fixed but bound by ugly metal staples. This repair technique is called kintsugi which translates as golden joinery and uses a special lacquer mixed with gold silver or platinum to fix the object in a way that highlights rather. But the japanese art of kintsugi follows a different philosophy.

Sackler gallery in washington d c. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. Its beginnings are often associated with the famed tale of a 15th century japanese military ruler whose antique. 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.

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. Jul 7 2020 the japanese art of repairing with gold to create a perfectly imperfect piece of beauty. The meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art. The philosophy behind the technique is to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it.

This inspired him to find an elegant way to amend the ceramic and as a result kintsugi was born.