2024: From broken to beautiful

The art and philosophy of Kintsugi has a powerful message to share with us, in particular during this moment of great instability in the world. That is why I selected this text for you (source TedX Melbourne) as a Christmas message.

Kin Tsugi, or ‘golden joinery’ is the ancient Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with tree sap dusted in luminous powdered gold.The art of repairing pottery originated in 15th century Japan under shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. When Yoshimasa’s favorite vase shattered into many pieces, he instructed his team of craftspeople to explore ways to repair it and return it to its former glory. From this, the artistry of kintsugi was born.

But kintsugi is not just an art form but also an approach to life. It emerged from the Japanese philosophy and aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which centers on the need to accept imperfection and embrace and make peace with a world that is intrinsically fluid and impermanent. Both kintsugi and wabi-sabi challenge the Western interpretation of beauty as rooted in perfection and symmetry, and instead encourages us to see beauty differently. Beauty comes from accepting and even cherishing the errors we may make, the flaws within ourselves and other people, and our visible or invisible scars. From these we learn to appreciate how all experiences, good and bad, shape and steer our paths.?

Kinstugi was born out of a need to build resilience and strength to whole societies. Wabi-sabi and kintsugi likely emerged in Japan—one of the most disaster prone countries in the world—to help people cope with earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and other natural disasters over hundreds of years. It provided a guiding philosophical framework through which to view catastrophe and helped those affected to regain optimism for the future. Kintsugi enabled the Japanese people to come to terms with extreme events and learn to heal themselves and their communities.

The art and philosophy of Kintsugi has a powerful message to share with us, in particular during this moment of great instability in the world. By applying the kintsugi lens to recent history, we are reminded of the ways in which society has been brought together again.

Although things do fall apart, kintsugi teaches us to view these experiences as important moments through which we practice perseverance and strength and ultimately make us the richly layered people that we are. Similarly, the mistakes we make along the way exist to teach us how to grow into more compassionate and self-reflexive members of society.?

Kintsugi demonstrates that nothing, my friend, is beyond repair.

With love,

Marlon.

Source text: https://www.tedxmelbourne.com/event/kintsugi-from-broken-to-beautiful