kintsugi

discover how to nurture those parts that are not “perfect”.

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According to the centuries-old legend, the craft of ‘golden joinery’ commenced when Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a cracked chawan—or tea bowl—back to China to undergo repairs. Upon its return, Yoshimasa was displeased to find that it had been mended with gross metal staples. This initiated the assignment of local craftsmen to find a more aesthetic alternative repair.

Mixing tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, the craftsmen formed an adhesive for fixing the broken ceramic treasure. These unique, sparkling seams made a repair that was strong, and conspicuous, and rather exquisite.

Yoshimasa was pleased and kintsugi was born.

Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is now known as the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. This method celebrates each artifact’s unique history by emphasizing its fractures and breaks rather than hiding them. Objects mended with the Crack technique are touched with minimal lacquer.

The Piece Method is a style of kintsugi that restores the pottery with fragments of a different lacquer.

Another style, the Joint Call technique, is where two unrelated pottery fragments are brought together into a uniquely identified piece.

It could be said that the revitalized original pottery is given a second life ornamented for new purpose.

This becomes a creative metaphor for anyone embarking on great change... We find broken parts of our lives that need a ‘joint call’ to develop into a new, coherent whole. The hope, and the goal, is that our relationship to life and living well become synchronous and harmonious within the context of the collective.

How are you tending to your perceived “cracks”?

If you would like to dive into this question with me, note that when you book a discovery call via, and put Meaning Mandala in the Message section, I'll block extra time do an impactful creative exercise with you. Mandala means “circle” in Sanskrit and you’ll draw your own circle of conscious awareness so you can get into a space of thinking creatively about your life purpose.
Perhaps you will discover something new.