Perfection in imperfection
Related Images
](https://micrio.thingsthattalk.net/IncDW/views/max/128x128.jpg)
](https://micrio.thingsthattalk.net/DYzGs/views/max/128x128.png)
The idea of kintsugi, besides its practicality, is to use the fragmentation as the central element for the transformation of the broken ceramic into a new object with different characteristics. With this, the object gains in value and is enjoyed more than in its undamaged state. The aesthetic perception is that one finds quality and profoundness in the so-called defects, wear and tear associated with aging and imperfections, rather than seeing them as flaws.
The explanation for this can be found in the aesthetic ideals of wabi and sabi. Wabi-sabi originates from the art of poetry and was strongly incorporated into the art of tea, for example by the great tea master Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591). Both wabi and sabi are not the easiest words to translate. Wabi can be translated as poverty, and sabi as seclusion, aging, patina, and decay. Wabi and sabi are interlinked and often interchangeable ideas that embody the beauty that consists of tangible and intangible things that are humble, simple, impermanent, and secluded.
Besides serving as an aesthetic principle, kintsugi also coincides with other philosophical ideas that have long been prevalent in Japan. The repair method also comes from the feeling of mottainai (勿体無い / もったいない), which expresses regret when something is wasted. Plus, the feeling of mushin (無心) which translates as no mind. This is to stimulate the acceptance of change.
But when did it all begin?
While the origins of kintsugi are uncertain, it likely became common somewhere during the late 16th or early 17th century according to Louise Allison Cort, curator of ceramics at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. According to Japanese folklore, a 15th-century military ruler’s Chinese celadon bowl had broken, so he sent it back to China to be replaced. However, he was told that the piece was too rare and could not be replaced. The celadon bowl was sent back repaired with metal staples in Chinese fashion. But with this story, Cort explains that gold lacquer repairs were not yet carried out in the 15th century. It is more likely that kintsugi began with the rise of tea bowls in the 16th century. This would coincide with the time when Sen no Rikyū lived. However, the first known reference to kintsugi was in the 17th century. It concerns a Japanese warrior who was associated with fashionable tea drinking ceremonies in his day. People accused him of influencing the market by buying regular bowls and breaking them to ultimately fix them with kintsugi, and in turn making money off of them. This could indicate that at the beginning of the 17th-century, kintsugi had become a common way for repairing and ornamenting ceramics for tea. Cort adds that it was especially true for tea bowls, which seem to have been dropped a lot more than other things.
There is another tale on the origins of kintsugi: a legend where a clumsy page drops the beloved Tsutsui Zutsu tea bowl of a strict military ruler named Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) sometime in the latter part of the 1580s. One of the guests quickly thinks of a comical poem tying in elements from the bowl’s name and the five pieces it broke into. This way, the bowl lived on to be cherished for several generations. It is said that the bowl was repaired by filling the cracks with gold lacquer. The focus was to make it not look like it had before.
Can this way of giving new life to broken things be used nowadays as well?