Archives for March 2024

21st March 2024. 4 min read

Image From Canva.com

Recently, I wrote about Wabi Sabi which is about embracing the beauty of imperfection, Impermanence and incompleteness in life.

You may read about Wabi Sabi under “Flaws in Beauty” written on 26th January 2023.

This time, I want to add the Japanese principle of kintsugi.

What is Kintsugi? It means golden joinery.

Kintsugi 金継ぎis the art of repairing broken pottery by putting together the pieces using glue made from tree sap and the cracks are filled with molten gold, silver or platinum.

What you get is a beautiful piece of pottery.

Image by Matt Perkins from splash.com

Origin of Kintsugi

Story has it that a 15th century military ruler, Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent one of his tea bowls to China for repair but was disappointed with the result.

He asked a local craftsman to find a more aesthetically pleasing method to repair. The craftsman’s solution was to emphasise the cracks instead of concealing them and Kintsugi was born.

Like Wabi Sabi that embraces our imperfection, Kintsugi also accepts imperfection and aims to make it better.

Lessons from Kintsugi

1 Kintsugi teaches us not to waste.

A broken object is not necessarily useless.

By repairing it using the right technique, we develop a more beautiful object keeping our memories of that object that we treasure.

As each object breaks randomly, the art that ensues is never the same.

2 It also teaches us that in life, we will meet setbacks, disappointments and feel broken sometimes.

Our traumatic events may scar us but we could heal ourselves by filling these cracks with hope, positive attitude, determination, new skills and creativity and other positive traits. That makes each of us unique and precious.

In essence, it is about resilience to the hard knocks of life.

I think of Aimee Mullins whom the world admire immensely. (You may watch her Ted talk presentation on YouTube)

Aimee Mullins is an exceptional person. She is truly inspiring to the world.

As a baby, her legs were amputated below the knees due to a condition called Fibula Hemimelia but she grew up in a very positive environment.

Aimee defied the doctor’s limited expectations. With the aid of prosthetic legs, she not only learn to walk but run fast!

Aimee became the 1996 Paralympic champion in Atlanta, setting three world records in 100m, 200m and long jump!

She also became an actress, successful model, all on prosthetic legs. Nothing could stop her.

Today she is a motivational speaker and her TED talk has drawn millions of people.

She has an amazing 12 sets of beautiful prosthetic legs and could decide how tall she wants to be.

She has given people inspiration, fresh insight and empowerment to anyone who is limited by other’s expectations.

In a sense, it’s likened to practising Kintsugi, becoming the strong, remarkable and beautiful person she is today.

She has inspired many by never bemoaning her fate or yielding to her condition. All the positive traits of courage, creativity, cheer, grit, confidence, positivity, etc are evident.

Kintsugi, a principle I will always try to apply when facing any setbacks or disappointment.