Kintsugi: The Poetic Mend

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, 金: gold and 継ぎ: joint, joining) has taken the West by storm over the last decade. The hype has been fuelled by the visual dominance of platforms like Instagram and pop-psychology. Google it and you'll find innumerable photos, DIY kits, famous - if slightly taken out of context - quotes, and articles on self healing.

Common knowledge says that kintsugi is that Japanese thing where broken objects are repaired with gold. But kintsugi is more about urushi, Asian lacquer, than gold itself. Viscous urushi is used alone or mixed with other materials to fill the gaps between and stick together the broken pieces. Only after the object has been effectively repaired a thin layer of gold dust (or other metals like silver, brass, or pewter) is applied to make the fault lines stand out.

Bonnie Kemske's latest book - Kintsugi: The Poetic Mend - is all about kintsugi, from its origins to a step-by-step how-to, from the poetic stories to the concrete metaphors that surround it. As the author notes early on, kintsugi never hides the story of an object's damage. Instead, it traces the memories of real or imagined occurrences.

The book features a great selection of photos that show the many faces of this craft that started as an extension of maki-e (蒔絵: sprinkled picture), a Japanese decoration technique in which lacquer is applied with a brush to draw pictures, patterns, and text on the surface of an object.

Last month I reached out to Bonnie to discuss the book during a live online conversation, which you can watch on my new YouTube channel. In it we talk about the origins of kintsugi, some of her favourite stories from the book, cultural appropriation, and how kintsugi has transcended from a repair technique into an artistic language.

Kintsugi: The Poetic Mend by Bonnie Kemske
Published by Herbert Press on February 18, 2021
bloomsbury.com/kintsugi

Disclaimer: I was sent a review copy of the book by Bloomsbury.