Kintsugi: The Ancient Art of Extreme Acceptance
That's Philosophical #37
Frustration- the emotion that follows any scratch on your car, a hole in a t-shirt, or a broken cup. Basic human psychology makes us hate anything that is imperfect or mildly inconvenient. We like new, untouched, shiny, and smooth. We hate deformed, scratched, and dusty. The art of Kintsugi criticizes this way of thinking and offers a beautiful way of dealing with it.
Buddhists say that you make up the waves in your own mind. Stoics encourage you to not be a slave to your emotions and accept that there are things that are outside of your control. Just like the dozens of other philosophies I’ve learned about throughout the years, Kintsugi doesn’t settle with what we, humans, take as comfortable.
The art of repair
Kintsugi translates as “golden joinery” and this philosophy is basically a celebration of use. It’s sort of an acceptance mindset that is taken to the extreme.
Kintsugi is a restoration process of broken ceramic items. But there is a twist. Kintsugi masters use lacquer or glue to join the broken pieces back together and then… they add gold to the cracks. In the end, it looks something like this:
As you can see, there is no effort to conceal the damage. The restoration process clearly doesn’t return the pottery to its original form, rather, it highlights the flaws.
Beautiful does not always mean perfect.
And this is the point of this practice. This art reminds people that we shouldn’t let our minds decide that something is worthless just because it’s broken. Kintsugi visualizes what it’s like to embrace your own, or someone else’s, flaws. Kintsugi pottery is a representation of the human soul.
We talked about the wabi-sabi concept in this newsletter not so long ago. This philosophy encourages people to be satisfied with what they have and not focus on their flaws. Damage and age are not negative in Wabi-sabi. It says that we need to be focused on the present and not be attached to the things that come and go. Kintsugi is a practice that visualizes Wabi-sabi, broken pottery that is joined back together as a symbol of impermanence and the celebration of age.
Kintsugi embraces flaws. Like other interesting philosophies that come from physical art, like the process of making a katana or tea ceremonies, this practice shares a simple metaphor for a complicated modern world, overtaken by our psyche.
Every difficulty you have ever been through makes you unique in your own way. Every flaw you have makes you stand out. Difficult childhood or unhappy memories, everything builds your personality. And there are two ways to look at yourself- as a half-wrecked bowl of salad, or as a half-wrecked bowl of salad covered in gold. You choose.
Kintsugi as a world-saving practice
You don’t have to use gold to practice Kintsugi. In fact, you don’t have to use any plates. I applied this to my own life because I felt an overwhelming amount of guilt over what I am doing to the planet.
Why am I even considering the fact of buying something when I go to the mall with my family? I don’t need anything. I have enough clothes to wear or games to entertain myself with. Capitalism is exploiting our natural desire for novelty that we talked about earlier.
Fast fashion is taking over the world as people buy 5-dollar t-shirts in bulk and show off their orders on TikTok. I normally tend to hate modern TikTok trends but I don’t take them seriously if they don’t influence me personally. But when a person buys a bunch of clothes and shows it all off as some kind of an accomplishment… I hate it.
You just bought 30 pieces of garbage produced using slave labor for you to wear 3 times and move on. For a bunch of views.
We wear a piece of clothing 37% less frequently on average, compared to 15 years ago. While production has doubled in recent years.
Modern society has to understand that our primal instincts are, once again, being exploited for money. I don’t care if you wear one t-shirt 50 times a year. I see it as a good thing and a sign of care. Why are we so obsessed with newness? To the point where we are willing to sacrifice our own planet for these short-term pleasures.
Kintsugi and Wabi-sabi can help. The idea of embracing the age and the flaws is just not in our culture. I believe that changing our view on consumption is the first step towards a greener planet. We can look at clothes as a long-term investment rather than a short-term tool.
Waste not- Want not
Final Thoughts
Here we are again. Where this newsletter started. An ancient philosophy offering a solution to a modern-day problem. Kintsugi offers a unique metaphor that shows “good” damage. Not only the practice itself is really meaningful, but the art is also beautiful.
I am so thankful we have access to such ancient philosophies. I feel like that’s my job to spread awareness on these practices. Once again, thank you guys for reading this, see you in the next issue of That’s Philosophical!
My recent issue about one of the most controversial philosophies:
I find that the hardest flaws to accept are your own. But it helps to think of them as being covered with gold. Thank you for this piece! Came at such a perfect time for me :)
I always thought that flaws are very natural to humans so I consider myself to be a very forgiving person. Although it is important to encourage those who actually work on the flaws. There are people who decide to leave the bowl broken, and those who pick up the pieces and then put them back together. The latter are the ones who represent the hope for all humankind. Thank you for such a great article once again.