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Kintsugi: The ART of Mending the Broken Pieces with Gold
Having spent a lot of time in Japan during the height of my performing career, I have a special affinity for Japanese art principles. While in Japan I visited the towns of Arita, Imari, and Ookawachiyama where some of the oldest and most valued pottery comes from. Looking from the lens of pottery, please join me on a journey through the broken fragmented pieces to discover techniques to bring beauty and strength to what is broken.
Let's be real, things break, wear out, fall apart, and wither away. All things move through the life, death, life process. All stages of this cycle are important, beautiful, and necessary even though certain stages are more celebrated than others. There is a subtle internal ideal of what is pleasing, what is not, and how things should be. The new, growing, perfect, and untouched bloom is precious and valued while the old, used, broken, process of decay is sad, ugly, slow, cast aside, and perceived as less than valuable. It's like buying a white shirt and telling myself that I am going to wear it with complete awareness to keep it pristinely unmarked. Then within moments, inadvertently doing something to altar it's original state. I create art and fire dance, keeping things pristine and perfect has not been my way. Do I cast that item aside because it is now stained? Is it now marked unusable or do I deem myself to external judgement for wearing a stained white top?
Considering, that in a natural forest ecosystem a downed tree in a state of decay is a healthy necessary component to the overall function of the forest. It is a beautiful part of the process that feeds the growth of life and the cycle of regeneration. It is worth stating that over harvesting the forest is as unsustainable as discarding what is stained, broken, and old because it doesn't meet an unrealistic ideal. There is wisdom in gracefully allowing the natural process of life, death, life to have it's full time without forced interference.
For example, More recently, I purchased a blue glass bottle from https://bluebottlelove.com/ while at Mt. Shasta. On the front was etched "I AM Presence, Love, Light, Truth, Wisdom, and Vitality. I was in a good flow of doing my yoga practice on the roof of the building I live in while the water sat in the sun receiving solar light codes. After practice I would sit and consciously drink in the charged water. After eighteen days of this practice, I was tested when an external situation unfolded that I felt compelled to act on. It sparked my sense of right and wrong. In choosing to confront the situation, I lost my center and found myself knocking the charged blue glass I AM presence water to the ground. The bottle broke into several pieces. The charged water flung out in all directions. I was immediately devastated, frustrated, upset with the person involved in the situation, wanting to blame them, while also recognizing that it was me who chose to take action in righting an apparent wrong. Consciously I could look no where other than into myself. There was a chain reaction to which I initiated.
First, I assessed the damage and cleaned up the pieces. Not wanting to leave any small pieces of glass on the ground I took careful attention at picking up all of the pieces. Instead of throwing them away, I chose to hold them to learn from the experience. There was also an immediate urge to plan another adventure to Mt. Shasta to go replace what was broken. That was then followed by looking the company up online and learning that I could order the bottles and have them shipped. Not only that, but there were more options and in addition to the I AM Presence bottle, I purchased The Way Forward. All in a few hours it appeared that I had replaced what was broken. At the next Mt. Shasta adventure I even ended up purchasing another bottle with a Sri Yantra etched into it, which represents the flow of energy in the universe. It is the masculine and feminine united as whole and represents the blueprint of the universe. The one broken bottle had immediately become three bottles. The situation felt more than remedied.
I placed the broken pieces of the original bottle in a pot to simmer until it became apparent as to what I would be inspired to do with the fragments of a shattered reality. They remained simmering on the backburner, out of mind in plain sight. At the point where I was tired of seeing them sit there, without giving it much thought I decided to release them. After all, I had the new bottles and the attachment to the old was far gone. Why keep the broken pieces that reminded me of a moment of weakness?
Creative Reuse Art
As an artist, I have used creative reuse as a foundation principle of many of my art pieces, even though that was what I called the "old art technique". Creative Reuse Art included taking broken glass, old objects, broken, bent jewelry, mirrors, letters, dismantled clothes, feathers, rocks, masks, dirt, just about anything and bringing it together into something visually appealing, or maybe a little awkward and displeasing that invoked either an emotional or cognitive response, that brought to the surface a core truth, or challenged a limiting belief that was ready to be elevated and transformed. It lived at the intersection of where art therapy and sustainable living met. There came a point however, where the "old art" felt like heavy baggage and required full release to make space for a new creative expression to flow through.
Yesterday when I sat down to write this blog post, I found myself thinking about those broken bottle pieces. Along with it the words: picking up the broken pieces of life came forward from deep within. As I sat thinking about the current state of my life, it feels like I am all of the broken pieces. Post pandemic stress disorder is my term for those of us whose lives drastically changed in what felt like a never ending tower card moment in tarot to which there is no going back to normal option for. The way forward is THROUGH; building and crafting a new life. That may sound daunting, to which it is, however I kindly ask you hold your immediate reaction for just a moment to consider that this is not about good or bad, right or wrong, or polar opposites, and judgement. Rather it is all precisely what has needed to be in order to ascend, expand, change, grow, and arrive at this moment of reflection where I wonder if the whole situation exposed a flawed premise. That flawed premise being that there is something wrong with the broken pieces and they need to be replaced, discarded, or thrown away.
It is in this way that the Japanese practice of Kintsugi comes into play. Kintsugi literally means joining with gold. The process is therefore joining with gold the broken pieces of pottery. Kintsugi pottery is considered more valuable than the original piece. With it carries strength and beauty. I recalled seeing broken pottery. I probably even came across Kintsugi pottery. I didn't totally get the beauty of it then. I just saw broken pieces of pottery. We can only know what we know until we grow to learn what was previously unknown. Many times seeing the expanded view requires shifting the position from where we view it at. At the time flying high in the peak of success, it was easy to overlook the value and beauty in the broken pieces. I had to arrive in the kiln of my own calcination process to really get it. Like a good piece of pottery, transformation takes time.
5 Tips to Kintsugi your life!
Tip #1 - STOP! Just stop....
Whatever has happened, stop reacting and responding. The practice of Kintsugi requires first recognizing that there are broken parts. In my example with the blue glass, I was quick to replace the broken pieces with something perfect, complete, and whole. I was not patient. My actions were a steady stream of reactions without pause. As soon as I had the perfect, complete, and whole bottles, I released and recycled the broken pieces. Though this was what needed to happen to arrive at this moment of reflection, I also missed an opportunity to mend with gold the broken pieces, which likely represent other facets of my life.
Tip #2 - Assess
Look at the broken pieces. In your assessment, identify and gather all of the pieces. Notice, what materials they are made of, what shapes they are in, what environment is surrounding them, what do they represent, what do they feel like, what areas of life are affected, who is involved, where have all the pieces and tiny fragment scattered to, and any other information that seems relevant. Observe from all angles, along all timelines, in all dimensions, and revisit the site of the break a few times to see if there any other missing pieces to gather. Change the position you are viewing from. Be patient and take your time. Get a second opinion, seek support, nourish yourself, be gentle with yourself, yet be honest. It is not about telling yourself it's not broken or ignoring that there are broken pieces. It is about looking at the broken pieces and learning all that you can about them.
“The broken pot mended with gold is more beautiful than when it was first made.” – Old Japanese Proverb
Tip #3 - Let it simmer
Listen, observe, feel into how the pieces naturally fit together and the mending technique to apply. Let it sit, broken, and fragmented yet gathered into proximity while you observe each piece to allow the process through, to speak to you. It is not about time. In my circumstance of the broken blue glass bottle, it took 20 days from the original break, through the release of those pieces, to this moment today where I am having this reflection. If you think it should look a certain way, or happen in a certain amount of time, detach from those expectations. See the beauty in the imperfection and go beyond your aesthetic expectations.
Tip #4 - Prepare the healing salve of the heart
This is your unique remedy that comes from within. In looking deeply into the broken pieces you will see a way through. It is true, the only way is THROUGH. The healing salve is the unique elixir that blends the sap of the medicine tree and gold together to form an adhesive lacquer. What are the unique components of this elixir for you? In the process of Kintsugi the sap of the Urushi Tree is used to make a lacquer that is mixed with gold or gold dust is mixed with resin. When applied symbolically to all of the facets of life, there is a medicine unique to you that is your personal internal sap that when mixed with golden light frequencies becomes the lacquer that will bring together the broken fragments of your life. Identify and prepare this mixture. It already lives within you.
Tip #5 - Behold the Beauty in the Imperfection
Kintsugi (join with gold) the broken fragments either by joining the cracks with minimal overlap, filling in the gap between the broken pieces, or adding in a piece that is a similar shape but non matching. These are the three techniques in Kintsugi. In this way, you learn to embrace the perceived flaws and bring together the broken fragmented pieces into a creation that is stronger and more beautiful. It carries within it the cracks reinforced with a healing gold elixir made from heart of nature. When you have finished mending the broken pieces, sit back, reflect, and see the beauty in the imperfection. Many of my art pieces started out great, went through a phase of what I call the ruining where I do something that messes up what I had done before to a point of no return. I keep working with it and at some point, I end up loving what becomes of it. Even if it's all messed up and imperfect for I know that is only one perspective relative to the limited vantage point I am currently perceiving by.
Learning to love your imperfections can go a long way in helping you grow to new heights in your life. You can schedule a free soul discovery call to obtain a map that will show you where you are and a route to where you want to be. https://www.luminouslifejourney.com/contact
Expanded Premise
The flawed premise revealed a belief that there is something wrong with the broken pieces and that they need to be replaced, discarded, or thrown away. The expanded premise is to take the broken pieces, see their natural shape, how they fit together, then to use adhesive and gold to join them together into a form that speaks beauty and strength. This is the healing work of mending. Book a soul discovery now to begin your own creative kintsugi process.
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Please visit my travel blog to read about my adventures in Japan.
The Louvre in Arita
The Legend of the Kurokamiyama Dragon in Arita
Tiger Twin Love in Imari
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