Japanese Ceramic Pottery Repair With Gold

Artisans began using lacquer and gold pigment to put shattered vessels back together.

Japanese ceramic pottery repair with gold.

Kintsugi is a centuries old japanese art of repairing broken pottery and transforming it into a new work of art with gold the traditional metal used in kintsugi. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan. Some four or five centuries ago in japan a lavish technique emerged for repairing broken ceramics. 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 meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art. 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. The scars and cracks of the broken ceramic become the focus and turn the object into something unique and exquisite. This tradition known as kintsugi meaning golden seams or kintsukuroi golden repair is still going strong.

Once completed beautiful seams of gold glint in the conspicuous cracks of ceramic wares giving a one of a kind appearance to each repaired piece. To celebrate bbc four s japan. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. The name of the technique is derived from the words kin golden and tsugi joinery which translate to mean golden repair.

The translation from japanese of kintsugi or kintsukuroi means golden joinery or repair with gold where the gold powder is applied on lacquer. Kintsugi metals real gold and metal alloy creating a realistic and durable gold effect lacquer to be used with the real gold traditional kintsugi application apply lacquer with thin brush over the repair line in the desired thickness allow the lacquer to get a bit tacky before applying the gold powder. Nothing is ever truly broken that s the philosophy behind the ancient japanese art of kintsugi which repairs smashed pottery by using beautiful seams of gold.