Modern artists and designers experiment with the ancient technique as a means of analyzing the idea of loss, synthesis, and improvement through destruction and repair or rebirth. Kintsugi is the general concept of highlighting or emphasizing imperfections, visualizing mends and seams as an additive or an area to celebrate or focus on, rather than absence or missing pieces. Influence on contemporary art, design, and culture Staple repair was used in Europe (in ancient Greece, England and Russia among others) and China as a repair technique for particularly valuable pieces. Staple repair is a similar technique used to repair broken ceramic pieces, where small holes are drilled on either side of a crack and metal staples are bent to hold the pieces together. This poignancy or aesthetic of existence has been known in Japan as mono no aware, a compassionate sensitivity, or perhaps identification with, outside oneself. a kind of physical expression of the spirit of mushin.Mushin is often literally translated as "no mind," but carries connotations of fully existing within the moment, of non-attachment, of equanimity amid changing conditions.The vicissitudes of existence over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject. Not only is there no attempt to hide the damage, but the repair is literally illuminated. Kintsugi can relate to the Japanese philosophy of mushin ( 無心, "no mind"), which encompasses the concepts of non-attachment, acceptance of change, and fate as aspects of human life. The philosophy of kintsugi can also be seen as a variant of the adage, "Waste not, want not". This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken it can also be understood as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting cracks and repairs as events in the life of an object, rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage.
Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear from the use of an object. It was repaired by a Japanese collector in the early 20th century.Īs a philosophy, kintsugi is similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect. Goryeo wine ewer with gold lacquer repair. The bowl became valued even more highly because of these large metal staples, which looked like a locust, and the bowl was named 'bakōhan ("large-locust clamp"). On the other hand, according to Bakōhan Saōki (record of tea-bowl with a 'large-locust' clamp), such "ugliness" was considered inspirational and Zen-like, as it connoted beauty in broken things. It is also possible that a pottery piece was chosen for deformities it had acquired during production, then deliberately broken and repaired, instead of being trashed. Collectors became so enamored of the new art that some were accused of deliberately smashing valuable pottery so it could be repaired with the gold seams of kintsugi.
When it was returned, repaired with ugly metal staples, it may have prompted Japanese craftsmen to look for a more aesthetically pleasing means of repair.
One theory is that kintsugi may have originated when Japanese shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a damaged Chinese tea bowl back to China for repairs in the late 15th century. Kintsugi became closely associated with ceramic vessels used for chanoyu ( Japanese tea ceremony). While the process is associated with Japanese craftsmen, the technique was also applied to ceramic pieces of other origins including China, Vietnam, and Korea. Lacquerware is a longstanding tradition in Japan and, at some point, kintsugi may have been combined with maki-e as a replacement for other ceramic repair techniques. 5 Influence on contemporary art, design, and culture.