Japanese Ceramic Repair

This tradition known as kintsugi meaning golden seams or kintsukuroi golden repair is still going strong.

Japanese ceramic repair.

While the goal of traditional western style ceramic repair is to make the piece look like it was never damaged there s a four hundred year old japanese tradition that may have saved your. This inspired him to find an elegant way to amend the ceramic and as a result kintsugi was born. Some four or five centuries ago in japan a lavish technique emerged for repairing broken ceramics. According to louise cort the curator of ceramics at the freer gallery of art and arthur m.

As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. Sackler gallery it was during this time that a japanese warrior infamously purchased broke and repaired standard tea bowls in order to make a profit that seems to indicate that by the beginning of the 17th century kintsugi was a. Kintsugi repair is a form of japanese art not just a diy repair method. The technique is the ancient art of japanese kintsugi a powerful metaphor for life where nothing is ever truly broken.

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. We restore ceramic objects implementing the japanese art of broken pottery repair kintsugi kintsukuroi using 23 5k gold and lacquer or our proprietary developed process and materials with encapsulated gold effect metals this lesson is intended to show the difference between the two kintsugi implementations methods and to learn how it is done. 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. Ceramics and pottery are fragile strong and beautiful all at once just like people.

By the 17th century kintsugi has become common practice in japan. 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. The history of kintsugi. Metallic powder is mixed with resin or lacquer to fix pieces together.

Meet the beautiful japanese art that helps you repair the broken objects and overcome sorrow. The meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art. This lesson shows only the highlights of the.