SumiKintsugi in kanji: gold + join (金継ぎ)
Kintsugi (金継ぎ) is the Japanese craft of mending broken pottery so that the repair shows: the cracks are sealed with lacquer and finished with gold. The name is simply 金, gold, and 継ぎ, joining or patching. Gold joins, and the broken lines become the most striking thing about the bowl.
What the kanji say
金 (kin, or kane) means gold, and also metal and money: お金 (okane) is money. In Chinese the character first meant copper, then any metal, and finally gold. In kintsugi it’s read kin, the reading for gold.
継 (kei, or tsugu) means to join, to continue or to inherit. The 糸 on its left is thread: think of tying one length to the next. 継ぐ (tsugu) can mean to patch or mend, or to carry on after someone: 父の店を継ぐ (chichi no mise o tsugu) is to take over your father’s shop. As a noun, 継ぎ (tsugi) is a join, or a patch on clothes, so “gold patch” is a fair reading too.
How kintsugi is done
Despite the name, the glue isn’t gold. The pieces are joined with urushi, a lacquer made from the sap of the lacquer tree and built up in layers, and the visible line is dusted or mixed with powdered gold, or sometimes silver or platinum. Another name for the craft is 金繕い (kintsukuroi), “gold mending”.
Nobody knows exactly when it began. One popular theory ties it to the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in the late 1400s: he sent a damaged Chinese tea bowl back to China for repair, it came back held together with simple metal staples, and Japanese craftsmen looked for a more beautiful way to mend. It’s a good story, but it’s one theory, not settled history.
Kintsugi is often linked with 侘び寂び (wabi-sabi), the Japanese appreciation of things that are imperfect, worn and impermanent, and with もったいない (mottainai), the feeling that it’s a waste to throw something away. The crack isn’t hidden. It becomes part of the bowl’s story.
How to use it
割れたお皿を金継ぎで直した。
Wareta osara o kintsugi de naoshita.
I mended the broken plate with kintsugi.
金継ぎ教室に通っています。
Kintsugi kyoushitsu ni kayotte imasu.
I'm taking a kintsugi class.
父の店を継ぐつもりです。
Chichi no mise o tsugu tsumori desu.
I'm planning to take over my father's shop.
仕事を後輩に引き継いだ。
Shigoto o kouhai ni hikitsuida.
I handed my work over to a junior colleague.
- 継ぐ has two big jobs: joining and mending things, as in 継ぎ目 (tsugime), a seam, and carrying on, as in 跡継ぎ (atotsugi), an heir.
- On your travels, 乗り継ぎ (noritsugi) is a connection: a change of trains or flights, one journey joined to the next.
- 金 has several readings. It’s きん (kin) for gold, as here, and かね (kane) for money, as in お金.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| お金 | okane | money |
| 金曜日 | kin’youbi | Friday |
| 継ぐ | tsugu | to take over, to inherit; to mend |
| 引き継ぐ | hikitsugu | to hand over, to take over |
| 乗り継ぎ | noritsugi | connection (trains, flights) |
| 中継 | chuukei | relay, relay broadcast |
Remember it
A cracked bowl, and a thread (糸) of gold (金) stitching it back together (継). The scar becomes the decoration.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.