The Japanese concept of Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with gold, silver, or platinum and celebrating the broken places. Its lesson of embracing imperfection could help us as well.

In kintsugi, craftspeople use resin and gold dust to fix cracks in ceramics, showing and enhancing, rather than attempting to hide, the history of the piece.

That is the reality of our interconnectedness and the mystery of the metaphorical gold. May the image of gold from the art of Kintsugi invoke a moment of beauty and inspiration for you.

Meaning “joining with gold”, this centuries-old art is more than an aesthetic. For the Japanese, it’s part of a broader philosophy of embracing the beauty of human flaws.

Naoko Fukumaru practices kintsugi from her studio in Vancouver. Kintsugi is the centuries old Japanese art form of mending broken ceramics and highlighting their imperfection using gold powder ...