Countries and cultures - Cultures and customs - Japanese ceramics - Japanese aesthetics - Japan
What is the Japanese art of visibly repairing broken pottery with gold called?
Correct!
Kintsugi is a traditional Japanese technique for repairing broken or damaged ceramics. The cracks are joined with urushi lacquer and then highlighted, among other materials, with gold powder. Instead of making the damage as invisible as possible, the cracks deliberately become part of the object’s appearance. The term kintsugi means roughly “golden joinery” or “golden joining”. The technique is closely connected with the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, in which impermanence and imperfection can also be seen as part of an object’s beauty. Kintsugi has been practiced in Japan for centuries. The Japan National Tourism Organization describes the technique as a centuries-old method in which the “scars” of a repaired object are not hidden but emphasized with gold.
Kintsugi makes cracks visible with lacquer and gold and connects repair with Japanese aesthetics.
Source: Japan National Tourism Organization - The Art of Imperfection: Kintsugi Pottery and Wabi-Sabi
