Kintsugi: Finding Beauty in the Broken at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Kintsugi is a traditional Japanese art form dedicated to seeing the ‘beauty in the broken’ that dates back to the 15th Century. Literally translating to ‘golden joinery’, Kintsugi is a painstaking process of repairing broken ceramics such as teacups, plates, and pottery with gold-dusted lacquer, highlighting the cracks and incorporating them as critical milestones in the object’s history.

It’s important to note that kintsugi is not about conservation in the sense of trying to hide the brokenness, or to make something look like it’s still in mint condition (or as close to it as possible). Instead, Kintsugi is about creating something new from the pieces and rebuilding to make it even more beautiful than before.

Kintsugi at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Are you interested? There are a few more dates coming up if you missed this one.

On Friday, Dec. 3, I attended a demonstration hosted by local kintsugi artist Naoko Fukumaru at the Vancouver Art Gallery. This demo was inspired by Yoko Ono’s MEND PIECE (1966), which is part of Ono’s GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono/The art of John and Yoko exhibition currently showing until May 1, 2022. 

The demonstration began at 5:30pm, and the small room was very busy by the time we got there. The artist, Naoko Fukumaru, was sitting at a large table with numerous delicate and gorgeous kintsugi pieces laid out before her. As she demonstrated the kintsugi process, she told us about her background in ceramic restoration and how the philosophy of kintsugi helped her get through some of the hardest moments in her life.

Each and every piece on the table was stunning in its own right, and you could see all of the time and dedication that each one must have taken. A few of the most intriguing kintsugi objects were the crab shells, a huge mushroom, sea urchins, and a partially repaired animal skull--each meticulously repaired with the stunning gold-dusted lacquer characteristic of kintsugi. 

But the truly stand-out object for me was the fully repaired hardboiled eggshell, which was kept under a Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque bell jar for safekeeping (I assume). But just to be even more extra, the bell jar even had kintsugi too!!

Here’s a close up of the egg, bell jar, crabshell, and a few other pieces.

How to Kintsugi in 6 (not so) simple steps

Naoko had boiled down the Kintsugi Process into 6 steps that were taped around the edge of her table. While reading them, I thought it seemed straightforward enough, although I knew in the back of my mind that if these six steps looked simple, it was only deceptively so. Much like any artform someone can dedicate themselves to, it became clear during the demo that the Kintsugi process could take multiple lifetimes to master.

With everyone huddled together, we hung on Fukumaru-san’s every word, and it was an engaging and interactive experience as she enjoyed answering questions from the audience.

Kintsugi is time-consuming, painstaking work

Fukumaru-san showed us how time-consuming kintsugi truly is. The Urushi glues and lacquers used can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to cure! A single 1mm layer of lacquer can take up to five days to cure on its own, and sometimes you need to use five layers, so a single kintsugi piece could easily take months. 

She also uses specialized bamboo brushes, and the gold dust that gives kintsugi its trademark look is polished with the tooth of a sea bream—and its $500 per gram. A wrong sneeze in her workshop could be absolutely devastating.

What is wabi-sabi?

Kintsugi embodies many of the same principles of wabi-sabi, a traditional Japanese aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. I sometimes joke with my partner that every new wrinkle or white hair is simply wabi-sabi and therefore nothing to worry about, and this demo was a way to watch wabi-sabi put in action. 

There was also an amusing moment when Naoko acknowledged the irony of Japanese perfectionism and obsessive attention to detail being applied to the art of imperfection. 

The Yoko Ono connection

I felt like Fukumaru-san’s live kintsugi demo really elevated my experience of Yoko Ono’s MEND PIECE, which took place in the same room. 

The table behind Naoko was littered with broken pieces of IKEA cups and plates, and after being inspired by the demo, you could make your own kintsugi-esque art by putting together the broken pieces with the provided string and scotch tape. 

It was a brilliant way for the audience to get hands on and try it for themselves, and I also found it super cool that Naoko had actually met Yoko Ono back in 2003, which brought it all back around full circle.

As Naoko so elegantly put it, kintsugi is a way to, “Rescue the damaged [because] everything deserves love and care,” and I think that’s something we can all take to heart and celebrate in our own lives. 

Your very own MEND PIECE!