Hodgepodge 352/365 - Kintsugi 金継ぎ

A new term for me, and one that I will try to weave into my writing about WWII:* kintsugi (金継ぎ, golden joinery) or kintsukuroi (金繕い, golden repair), the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. It is related to the maki-e (蒔絵), or "sprinkled picture," technique of lacquer decoration.

I see kintsugi termed "the art of precious scars," the point being to treat breakage and repair as something intrinsic to the history of an object (or, perhaps, a person), rather than as something to disguise. It fits squarely into the wabi-sabi (侘寂) aesthetic, the idea that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. Transience and imperfection, baby.

It is an excellent metaphor, and one I ran into today on FB with the #metoo posts, about violence against women. Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters, said: "If the internet is making your heart break today, let it crack open wide. That's how we're going to fix this together. Beauty from the pain." Or as Hemingway put it, "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

There is much pain in the world, and yet so very much beauty and strength as well.

* . . . when I get back to writing—which I hope will be any day now: one last job to finish.