KINTSUGI / JAPANESE GOLDEN REPAIR
About 500 years ago / 1500s / Muromachi Period (1336–1573)
Kintsugi repairs broken ceramics with lacquer and finishes the joins with gold or other metal powder. It is generally associated with the rise of tea culture in the Muromachi period, when repairing valued vessels rather than discarding them became linked to an aesthetic that accepted damage as part of an object’s history.
In Japan, kintsugi is understood as more than technical repair. It allows the time an object has lived through to remain visible. Renewed interest in sustainability and repair culture has brought the technique beyond tea utensils to ordinary household ceramics and public workshops.
The gold line is never an original design—it records the accident itself. Because no two breaks are identical, every repaired pattern is unique. This visible history helps explain why kintsugi has become an international metaphor for accepting scars rather than pretending they never existed.