Kintsugi ~ Beyond the Broken Soul

 According to legend, the art of Kintsugi originated when Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa inadvertently broke his favorite tea bowl. Rather than discard it, he decided to see if it could be mended. He sent it to China to undergo repair. When it was returned to him, it had been mended with metal staples not only making it unsightly, but also rendering it useless.

He called his own Japanese artisans and asked that they find a way to repair his beautiful piece. They decided to add real gold dust to the bonding agent that mended the pieces together. Once the mixture was prepared, they laid it into each seam and pressed the pieces together leaving a glimmering gold seam where unsightly cracks once marred.

From those humble beginnings, Kintsugi grew to become a symbol of the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which invites us to see beauty in the flawed or imperfect.