Japanese Ceramics Repaired With Gold

Kintsugi is said to have originated in the 15th century when a japanese shogun broke a favorite tea bowl and sent it back to china to be fixed.

Japanese ceramics repaired with gold.

The name of the technique is derived from the words kin golden and tsugi joinery which translate to mean golden repair. 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. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan. 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.

According to lakeside pottery. Artisans began using lacquer and gold pigment to put shattered vessels back together. 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 meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art.

This repair technique is called kintsugi which translates as golden joinery and uses a special lacquer mixed with gold silver or platinum to fix the object in a way that highlights rather. 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 is the japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections you can create an even stronger more. According to louise cort the curator of ceramics at the freer gallery of art and arthur m.

This traditional japanese art uses a precious metal liquid gold liquid silver or lacquer dusted with powdered gold to bring together the pieces of a broken pottery item and at the same time enhance the breaks. Copy the japanese and fix it with gold 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. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. Some four or five centuries ago in japan a lavish technique emerged for repairing broken ceramics.

By the 17th century kintsugi has become common practice in japan.