What is Kintsugi?
Kintsugi, pronounced "kin-tzu-gee," is a traditional Japanese lacquer craft developed by Maki-e artisans. It involves mending broken pottery with natural urushi lacquer and embellishing it with real gold.
Historically, kintsugi was a secondary task for lacquer and Maki-e artisans in Japan. However, over the past decade, the craft has gained worldwide recognition, leading to a growing demand for kintsugi works. As a result, many artisans have shifted their focus to kintsugi repairs.
High-quality, traditional kintsugi requires expertise in the application of Japanese lacquer.
About "That" Broken Bowl
The Beginning of Kintsugi
How many times have you heard or read the generic story about a Japanese shogun sending an expensive broken bowl to China for repair and was returned with unsightly staples; thus the disgruntled shogun commanded something more pleasing, and started the Japan's development of a more refined and artistic repair method call Kintsugi?
This "myth" could use some debunking, and we felt the need to clarify the origin of kintsugi in Japan.
THE broken bowl has a name and a documented history.
The Famous "Bakohan" Bowl 銘馬蝗絆 めいばこうはん
The legendary bowl is known as "Bako-han" ばこうはん, a celadon porcelain bowl from the Southern Song dynasty. The name Bako-han translates to "leech clamps". This exceptionally high-quality bowl was gifted by a Zen priest from China to the Shogun in Japan in the 12th century. As the bowl passed down to other clans in the 15th century, it was cracked. Shogun Ashikaga sent a messenger to (Ming) China in search for a replacement. However, China was unable to reproduce the same bowl with such quality glaze made from two hundreds years back. The Chinese artisan then repaired it with 6 metal clamps and titled the bowl "MeiBakohan", named after the 6 large metal clamps that looked like leeches. At that time, Ming Dynasty China (15th c.) already had a range of well-developed repairing and restoration methods. Metal-clamping was well appreciated as a special aesthetics for high-value antiquities. Naming a bowl after the metal fasteners showed this aesthetics importance.
When Shogun Ashikaga received the repaired bowl, rather than "disappointed" as written in many unverified resources, he was MARVELED by the unique aesthetics of the repair method. The clan had been treasuring this bowl for many generations.
Marveled by the artifact and the story, Japan's Confucius philosopher Toto Ito 伊藤東涯 documented this story in 馬蝗絆茶甌記 ("an Essay on Bakouhan bowl") in 1727.
This is a discourse from the common myth that "some shogun was appalled by the unsightly metal clamps and ordered Japanese artisans to develop new ways of ceramic repair leading to invention of kintsugi".
Rather, the level of technique, craftsmanship, the sense of aesthetics and appreciation from China at that time was as exceptionally advanced as Japan.
In parallel, Japan has long and advance development in lacquer art and restoration by Maki-e masters, with appreciation in its own style and aesthetics. There were a lot of cultural exchanges and cross-referencing in ceramics and lacquer art between the 2 countries for centuries.
So, no more "disgruntled shogun" and "ugly staples on broken bowl".
note:
Most Japanese historians adopted Bakoban's translation as "horse locusts" which is the literal translation of the 2 Chinese characters 馬+蝗, but it is actually a mistranslation of the Chinese vocabulary "Ma-Huang" meaning leeches.
The Bakohan bowl is recognized as Japan's National Treasure archived in Tokyo National Museum. It is an important piece of ceramics history of Japan. This legendary bowl can be seen in the museum's digital archive here.
We hope this will debunk the misunderstanding and dismissing of the clamp-repair method and shed some light on the "mythical" broken bowl that got sent to China for repair. These "leech" clamps were appreciated as high-art BOTH in China as well as in Japan.
Image rights ©National Institutes for Cultural Heritage