Kintsugi Book: The Poetic Mend

• Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with a precious metal, usually gold, silver or platinum. The technique celebrates the history of the object and, instead of disguising a repair, highlights and beautifies it.
• This book explains what traditional kintsugi is and how it is done, giving historical examples and using interviews with traditional kintsugi masters in Japan. He reflects on the possible reasons for its development, looking especially at a cultural attitude of "creativity through destruction." Different types of repairs will be discussed, including the "basic" anterior repair often seen on Chinese ceramic wares and the development of yobitsugi, in which fragments from different vessels are joined together forming a mosaic, and other kintsugi techniques.
• The metaphorical richness of a broken vessel becoming stronger and more beautiful is both universal and deeply personal. The book will look at how this is used in music and literature, with the inclusion of short works of fiction and/or poetry separating the chapters.
• Author: Bonnie Kemske.
• Language: English.
• No. of pages: 176.

Publisher: Herbert Press.