05-12-2017, 12:23 AM
The Japanese Art of Kintsugi: Perfection Through Imperfection, Recognizing Beauty in Broken Things
When something appears to be broken what do you do? Do you throw it away and replace it with something new? Or do you try to mend it together to form something different and beautiful?
This is the underlying philosophy behind the Japanese pottery art of kintsugi. Instead of throwing away the broken pieces of a shattered jar or vase, the pieces are mended back together with gold lacquer.
In Japanese philosophy there exists the idea of embracing the flawed or the imperfect. When kintsugi is used to mend together broken pottery, the cracks are highlighted, rather than hidden.
This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken and as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting the cracks and repairs as simply an event in the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage. The process usually results in something more beautiful than the original.
The vicissitudes of existence over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject.
In other words, the transformation is not just about putting the pieces of one’s broken life back together, it’s about a total reinvention of self in which our shattered pieces are alchemized into a beautiful, thriving masterpiece. -dc
When something appears to be broken what do you do? Do you throw it away and replace it with something new? Or do you try to mend it together to form something different and beautiful?
This is the underlying philosophy behind the Japanese pottery art of kintsugi. Instead of throwing away the broken pieces of a shattered jar or vase, the pieces are mended back together with gold lacquer.
In Japanese philosophy there exists the idea of embracing the flawed or the imperfect. When kintsugi is used to mend together broken pottery, the cracks are highlighted, rather than hidden.
This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken and as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting the cracks and repairs as simply an event in the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage. The process usually results in something more beautiful than the original.
The vicissitudes of existence over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject.
In other words, the transformation is not just about putting the pieces of one’s broken life back together, it’s about a total reinvention of self in which our shattered pieces are alchemized into a beautiful, thriving masterpiece. -dc