A Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer laced with gold — not to conceal the damage, but to illuminate it. Each gilded seam becomes the object's story. Its scars, made luminous.
This is kintsugi.
In this beautifully illustrated volume, Bonnie Kemske — artist, Japanese tea ceremony student, ceramic researcher, and former editor of Ceramic Review — traces the full arc of kintsugi: its ancient origins in Japan, its philosophy of creativity through destruction, and its quiet, profound migration into Western culture.
Part art history, part personal journal, the book follows Kemske's own journey — through tea ceremonies, conversations with traditional kintsugi masters, and visits to ceramic artists in both Japan and the US. The result reads less like a catalogue and more like a meditation: open-ended, deeply felt, and alive with first-hand encounter.
The book also ventures beyond the ceramic studio — exploring how kintsugi's metaphorical richness has seeped into psychology and therapy, music, literature, spirituality, and the growing conversation around sustainability and conscious making. Short works of fiction and poetry appear between chapters, as quiet thresholds between ideas.
Author: Bonnie Kemske