The Meaning Behind Kintsugi

It’s common to go to a museum and find a room inaccessible due to restoration efforts underway. Sometimes, entire rooms are blocked off with a red rope and a large curtain or plastic tarp, ensuring curious visitors are kept at bay as the team works to restore priceless works of art, removing dust, dirt and decay. Once complete, the sands of time are typically undetectable. Some works are in a state of “preventative conservation,” like the Sistine Chapel. Painstaking efforts are taken to mitigate the famous fresco’s signs of aging–the chapel is kept between 71.6 and 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, the humidity in the room never exceeds 60%, and carbon-dioxide levels must remain lower than 800 parts per million. There’s a dedicated team of Vatican conservation technicians whose life’s work is to monitor and track these variables 24/7. 

There is however another way–the Japanese technique known as kintsugi, or kintsukuroi–translated to “golden repairs.” In contrast to the typical restoration techniques used to undo damage to works of art, the Japanese developed a technique wherein they use a lacquer made of tree sap resin to fill in the cracks and “glue” back together what was previously broken. Several centuries ago, the Japanese started using powdered gold in the lacquer, which is why upon googling kintsugi, you’ll find images of ceramics and statues stitched back together with strips of gold paint. The sap is toxic in its liquid form, but once cured, it’s harmless–the irony of this is not lost on us! 

According to the Mayo Clinic, kintsugi is not just an artistic restoration technique, but rather a part of a philosophy of embracing human flaws and life’s fragility. Your breakage as well as your efforts to make repairs aren’t a slate to be wiped clean, they are a part of your story and therefore, your identity. You do not come with a 24/7 conservation technician. You can’t be kept at exactly the right temperature with the right humidity and air quality, you are a force of nature living in an environment that you do not have full control over. You can however piece parts of yourself back together, and choose to highlight that journey in gold.