Imagine a world where beauty lies in imperfection. Where, far from suppressing the marks and wounds of time, they are celebrated and polished with care, love, and gold dust. Miyoko is a master craftswoman of Kintsugi , literally "golden joinery," is a Japanese art form that involves repairing chipped or broken tableware with lacquer filling and a gold finish. The Japanese pay close attention to objects, often considering them imbued with spirituality. They harbor a sense of remorse for wasted resources. At the same time, the Zen aesthetic of Wabi-sabi maintains the idea that the patina of time makes things and beings more beautiful.
While in the West the aim is to restore the object to its original state and give the impression that the repaired object was never damaged, the kintsugi highlights the individual destiny of the objects that make our homes living, evolving places.
Miyoko delicately opens the package that arrived this morning and discovers a white porcelain coffee cup with a broken rim. She leans towards the object, observing it with respect and tenderness, letting it gradually reveal itself and tell her about its owner, whose name is all she knows. She imagines her in the early morning, during coffee time, the world hers, capturing its infinity in a single sip. And then the cup slips away and, as it shatters, breaks her certainties, as if fate were making a decision for her. Accepting the break as part of life. “There is a crack in everything, that is how the light can enter,” says the poet*.
The craftswoman will work to piece together the fragments of the shattered story, and the owner will thus write its new chapters. The process is lengthy and costly, requiring time and materials. The gilded finish is purely decorative. The pieces are entirely repaired with layers of traditional Japanese urushi lacquer , a natural and durable material with a history stretching back nearly ten thousand years. Miyoko carries this heritage within her. Like all artisans, she believes that works of art must be crafted in harmony with nature to rediscover their true essence.
“In the “ kintsugi ,” Momoko Nakamura, a cultural curator and advocate of the Japanese art of renewable lifestyles, tells me, “the golden lines and shapes that emerge from repaired objects are called Keshiki , or landscape. It's about contemplating the panoramic view that represents the unique story of the object. The landscape that is the face of the loved one. The geography of their imperfect body that touches us, more than any perfectly smooth, perfectly firm perfection, but devoid of any spirit…
Prevention rather than repair is naturally the primary objective of skincare in Japan. Maintaining, nourishing, and protecting are thus at the heart of the essential and delicate Japanese beauty ritual, which accompanies self-acceptance and begins with a good, gentle cleansing.
*Leonard COHEN, Anthem, CD Album: The Future, CBS/Sony, 1992.