Is the idea of kintsugi a real thing or has it been taken out of context in the west? i.e. broken crockery is mended with gold to represent healing as a person

8 comments

1. Sounds wonderful but I don’t think it would happen often with the price of gold. I’d be mixing gold glitter with glue 😅

2. It exists, but very rare because it’s expensive and most just prefer to buy a new one. Also, the association with personal healing isn’t really a thing

3. It’s a popular traditional pottery, actually one of the small cities south of Nagoya usually has some on display since they’re famous for it.

   You can get cheaper versions of the stuff but it’s usually expensive to get the real thing.

   I don’t think I heard of the healing take though, it’s supposed to be admiration of perfection in imperfection. How something can be beautiful even flawed.

4. I have stayed at a ryokan where most of the crockery had been repaired in this manner. The owner was almost 95 years old and a bit of a personality (in a good way) to say the least, so I’m pretty sure they were actually only repaired as necessary and not stylized.

   I’m doing the story a great injustice by summarizing it like this, but here you go anyway.

   The owner was the son of the original owner. However, the place wasn’t always a tranquil ryokan. It was a hotel with perhaps 50 rooms, incl. even a bowling alley. Business was doing great, further expansion was planned. However, the son strongly disliked how tradition and appreciation of nature was being pushed away by senseless pursuit for profit. Eventually, he put a scheme in place. He waited for his parents to go on a business trip and immediately called in builders. Since he was in charge and had access to the company seal, he was able to form a contract to have the hotel demolished and a new small ryokan built next to it. The parents were furious once they returned. Obviously no work could be done during the business trip, but since the contract was in place and stamped, nothing could be done. They fought for years, but eventually calmed down and allowed him to do his thing.

   This video doesn’t tell the story but if you’re a sucker for interesting places, this very old video about that place is pretty fascinating: https://youtu.be/CZ8LTk3Ms7c

   Great place. Hope the owner is still OK.

5. I have a large dish I got handed down to me with this. Also a friend of mine did it herself at some place in Kamakura. Just pay and learn how to do it

6. Stupid oriental bullshit sold to white people to separate them from their money.

   Does kintsugi exist? Absolutely. But the rest of the mumbo jumbo about healing as a person and “*mottainai* mentality” is fuckin nonsense for like 99% of people in Japan.

7. Kintsugi is only done on crockery that is worth spending $30-100 fixing.

   It’s mostly done because the Japanese don’t like throwing things out and because it looks cool.

8. Kintsugi is authentic and beautiful within Japan, perhaps a temporary fad outside Japan.