Page 17 - BSAM 2018 Q4

More than merely a craft, kintsugi is representative of the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, a belief in the beauty of impermanence, incompleteness and imperfection.
There are few stories describing the circumstances that gave birth to this art form. A compelling one that speaks to this philosophy is about the famous master of the tea ceremony, Sen no Rikyu; a tea man; and a magnificent tea jar. The tea man invited Sen no Rikyu for the unveiling of his prized tea jar, anticipating words of praise from the revered master. To his surprise, Rikyu said nothing about the jar. After everyone left, he threw down the jar in anger, breaking it into pieces. Fortunately, some friends gathered all the shards and reassembled them using lacquer. Soon after, Rikyu was invited to a gathering where the repaired jar was part of the ceremony. As soon as he saw it, Rikyu exclaimed, “Now, the piece is magnificent.”
To Rikyu, the extremely valuable and pristine jar’s rebirth symbolized mortal fate and thus deepened its appeal.
Another appeal of a mended ceramic is how its appearance expresses the passage of time, the nicks, chips and scratches of a long life of utility, or a sudden fracture. Its renewed presence coexists with sense of what it was before.
Often, the value of an important piece increases after it is expertly mended with this technique.
Pure lacquer, Kishomi urushi—is used for all gluing work, whether it is reassembling the original fragments and restoring missing areas or voids with lacquer, or replacing parts of one ceramic object with pieces from another object, or other material such as wood.
This high quality, raw lacquer is mixed with an equal amount of rice flour to create a strong adhesive with a drying time of only two days. Another adhesive formula, just as strong, uses wheat flour instead of rice flour and requires ten days of drying time.
Ceramics restored or decorated with the Kintsugi process by Massimo Bandera.
Top; Green bonsai container: classic kintsugi joinery in silver.
Middle; Brown vase: very showy kintsugi in pure gold leaf
that creates a decomposed and cubist effect of the vase, suitable for avant-garde sculptures and bonsai works.
Bottom left; Vase for ikebana: the bucket shape finds in the handle the restorations in kintsugi as exaltation of the notoriously weaker parts that now appear reinforced.
Bottom right; Tea cup: kintsugi in gold with drips to suggest the glazes of ancient vases.
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