Illustrated Japanese Culture
金継ぎ
Kintsugi repairs damaged ceramics with lacquer-based materials and finishes the visible joins with gold powder. The lacquer does the bonding; the gold marks the surface.
01
Different repair situations, not stages in a single process.
A crack or break first needs a sound join. Lacquer mixed with materials such as wheat flour or rice paste can form an adhesive. Gold is not melted into the break, and a gold-coloured line alone does not show what adhesive lies beneath it.
Wood powder or polishing powder mixed with lacquer can fill losses of different sizes. A missing area may also be replaced with a fragment from another vessel, a method called yobitsugi, or with a shaped wooden insert. The method depends on the damage.
Silver powder produces a silver finish, often called gintsugi. A repair finished with lacquer alone can be called urushitsugi. The choice of surface finish and the choice of material used to replace a missing piece are separate decisions.
02
The broken edges are cleaned and the fragments fitted together before bonding. A lacquer-based adhesive joins them; missing areas may then need filling and smoothing. The exact mixture and sequence vary with the object and the restorer.
Urushi lacquer cures in suitable humidity and temperature. A repair needs several curing stages, with the time varying between objects and stages. The curing enclosure provides humidity rather than the high heat of a kiln.
Lacquer is applied along the prepared repair and gold powder adheres to this wet surface. Further curing, securing the powder and finishing follow. These tasks draw on lacquerworking and maki-e powder-decoration skills.
03
Kintsugi is often connected with the repair and appreciation of tea utensils in the Muromachi period. Its exact origin is unknown. The familiar story that shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa disliked Chinese staple repairs and prompted the invention of kintsugi is a legend, not a securely documented invention account.
The Tokyo National Museum’s Bakōhan is a thirteenth-century Southern Song Longquan celadon bowl with iron staples across its cracks. Stories connect it with Yoshimasa, but it is an example of staple repair, not kintsugi. The bowl’s manufacture and its repair must also be dated separately.
A seventeenth-century Japanese tea bowl in the Smithsonian collections has lacquer-and-gold repairs. The museum cautiously attributes the bowl to a possible Satsuma kiln. Its seventeenth-century manufacture does not establish when the repairs were made.
Contemporary practitioners repair everyday vessels as well as making exhibition pieces and teaching the craft. Some modern repair workshops use epoxy, fillers and coatings instead of natural urushi. These differ from traditional urushi repairs in their adhesives and coatings.
Lacquer-based materials bond the fragments; gold powder finishes the surface.
Replacing a missing area with a fragment from another vessel.
A repair finished with silver powder.
It uses a different visible finish and may be called urushitsugi.
The adhesive, fillings and surface lacquer need curing between stages.
No. It provides suitable humidity and temperature for lacquer to cure.
It is associated with the repair and appreciation of tea utensils, but its exact origin is unknown; the Yoshimasa invention story is a legend.
No. Its visible repair uses iron staples.
No. A repair may have been made much later.
No. Their adhesive and coating materials differ. Any intended use must follow the actual materials and maker’s instructions.