The Art and Philosophy of Kintsugi - Life Lessons

 

Kintsugi pottery (image: The Matheson Trust website)

Philosophy teaches us how to think and how to live life. Recently I came across a workshop Embracing the Broken – The Art and Philosophy of Kintsugi, to be held on a weekend in my city Bangalore.

Getting self-confession out of my way first, I didn’t knew about the philosophy Kintsugi, before stumbling upon this workshop advertisement.

To know about it more, I looked up on Google and Youtube. Sharing what I learned, in this blog. There are two parts to Kintsugi – The art, craft, it’s technicalities and the philosophy, it’s deeper meaning.

The art, craft and technicalities of Kintsugi:

Kintsugi translates as “golden joinery”, or “golden repair”, the Japanese craft of using lacquer and powdered/dusted form of metals such as gold, silver, etc to rejoin and repair a broken ceramic item. The Kintsugi restoration process differs from other restoration techniques. In other restoration techniques the craft-person’s primary objective is to conceal the visibility of the restoration. On the contrary, in Kintsugi the craft-person makes the restorations are so obvious, that they can be considered nothing less than celebrations of the usage, cracks and scars.

Materials needed for Kintsugi‘s are: lacquer (a binding medium), a palette knife, a fine paintbrush, and powdered metal (usually gold or a shiny material of choice). The process is fairly simple: mix lacquer with a binding medium–rice or flour to make glue, use it to stick the (ceramic) pieces back together. Before the glue dries up, sprinkle the powdered metal on it, highlighting the jointed break lines.

The philosophy of Kintsugi:

At the heart of Kintsugi, lies the revolutionary idea: embrace the break! The breakage and repair are part of an object’s history, not something to disguise and to be ashamed of. The golden lines traversing through the repaired piece don’t just hold the pieces together—they tell the story of survival and transformation, thereby becoming the most striking feature. Kintsugi celebrates the imperfection, aging, and damage by making the mend visible.

Kintsugi, draws upon Wabi-Sabi, the Japanese aesthetic philosophy that finds beauty in imperfection and embraces the nature’s law of ageing with passage of time. ‘Wabi-sabi’ celebrates beauty by embracing it’s imperfection and ageing.

Kintsugi also draws upon the concept of Mono no Aware, which embodies an awareness of nature’s law of impermanence, cyclical transient nature of all things. This viewpoint, finds beauty in the transient nature of life. (Think about it in the context of Japan, cherry blossom, blooms to it’s fullest before withering off and this cycle repeats with nature’s seasons).

Kintsugi pottery (image: RTFF.org)

Reading about Kintsugi and the philosophy behind it, has left me with a deep sense of appreciation for this artform. Next time when I come across a Kintsugi ceramic pottery, through it kintsugi practitioners will speak to me – “Breakage is inevitable, nothing remains permanent and unchanged forever. Denial and resisting this is futile, wisdom is in embracing this eternal truth.”

Kintsugi philosophy and it’s practitioners understand that the moment of breaking is painful, but it also opens up possibilities for transformation, that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

We can draw upon many valuable life lessons on how to think? and how to live life? from Kintsugi philosophy. If not listing out many, do remember these three key life lessons and practice them:

1. Acceptance: Life is a journey, and like in any journey there will be sunny days and rainy days, there will be good experiences and bad experiences, there will be days when we will reach our destination and there will be days when we will be lost in the wilderness. Kintsugi, teaches us acceptance of all experiences in life. Life is about embracing everything.
2. Let go: Life’s nature is impermanence, cyclical and nothing lasts forever. Our ego and our attachment to material possessions, status, title, position, power, success makes it very difficult for us to let it go, when they end. Also, when life situations are on the downhill, we fail to recognise, even this will not last forever. Life’s nature is cyclical, time and tide will turn, so let to go and practice being equanimous.
3. Pursue excellence, not perfection: The majority narrative of society, consumerism is selling perfectionism. Flawless beauty, youthfulness forever, a promised land, a picture perfect slices of life across all domains. This narrative conditions us to hide our vulnerabilities, makes us fearful of failures and we develop inferiority complex because our yardstick of being perfect makes us fall short of these unattainable standards. Kintsugi, teaches us, there is no such binary concepts of perfection and imperfection, in nature. So life is lived better, if one drops the idea of unattainable perfection, and picks up the idea of pursuing excellence. In the pursuit of excellence, one accepts striving for incremental improvements, to pivot, and the mind frees itself from the fear of failure, on it’s pursuit of excellence.          

Isn’t this a great philosophy to practice in life? In today’s geo-political, technological, economic upheavals and uncertainties, we will fall, fall, break, and pick up scars multiple times in our life’s personal and professional journeys.

So let’s develop the Kintsugi mindset, to accept, to let go and being in the pursuit of excellence and not perfection. Let us wear our scars up our sleeves, because these are not imperfections to hide, these are inspiring life’s story of survival, not giving up, transformation and thriving.

Customer Rating & Reviews : To Trust or Not to Trust?

 

Incentive to rate 5 star!

Recently, we bought a low-value product on Amazon (Sunshades for our car windows). In the package, was a customer offer - Rate us 5 Star and get Cashback!

In today's online, digital marketplace, paid influencers, AI chatbots, and Algorithms, are an open secret marketing toolkit, which are pushing products, backed with big Moolah. 

This is happening at an enterprise, B2B level. As an individual customer, I can blame the system, the malpractices of business houses, where revenue comes before business ethics. But, if customers also become part of this malpractice, I am robbed of the little left pleasure of being an armchair activist (sarcasm intended). 

See, the above picture of the Customer offer. The seller is offering cashback as an incentive to receive a 5 Star rating. If the offer was leave us any rating based on your satisfaction level, it would be legit. However, when the cashback is for only a 5 star rating, it's bringing down the tactics of paid influences at an individual (customer/retail) B2C level. 

The best case scenario can be, great product, high customer satisfaction, 5 star rating and cashback claimed. Win win for both parties: seller and buyer. The other potential buyers, buys this great product by seeing the 5 star rating and they also benefit from making the right choice. Win win for the marketplace.

The worst case scenario can be, poor quality product, low customer satisfaction, yet the customer provides a 5 star rating for minimising his loss. The Seller here is incentivized to continue profiteering  on a sub-standard product. The customer makes a marginal cut on his loss, but still ends up being a loser with a net-loss. But such customers, ends up causing loss to many more potential buyers who ends up buying this sub-standard product, on the basis of the 5 star rating. God forbid, if this vicious cycle continues like a chain reaction, individuals cutting their personal losses, but stir-up collective losses, by misguiding others to buy a sub-standard product.

Though we don't have control on enterprise, B2B level, we can be responsible and play our constructive part at an individual/retail B2C level and exert control, here. So, next time, we ask this question To Trust or Not to Trust, the rating? we should remind ourselves, an ecosystem is only as good, or as bad, as it's members collective behaviour.  

Games Indians Play - why we are the way we are? V. Raghunathan (Book review)

 

Book cover (courtesy: Goodreads website)

While reading this book review, I am reminded of the famous line "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" from the fairly tale Snow White.

Let me explain - If you think you will get offended like the Queen, on not hearing the self-gloating answer, then this book is not for you. This book is for those, who dare to look into the mirror, see themselves free from self-bias, see both the good and areas of improvement in themselves, and reflect and work upon themselves to become better. 

As N.R. Narayana Murthy writes in the foreword, this book is an illuminating study of the life and behaviour of Indians in the public sphere. For me, what stands out is the choice of narration that the author V. Raghunathan has taken. He does not present his case as a Sociologist (which a reader would assume it to be, for such kind of books). Rather he writes it from an Economist's point of view. He examines Indian social behaviour through Behavioural Economics and Game Theory, drawing on the research by Game Theorists and Behavioural Economists. He uses the Prisoner's Dilemma Framework to understand the characteristics of human rationality, irrationality, egotism, selfishness, antagonism, competition, collaboration, and cooperation among us Indians vis-a-vis the rest of the world in day-to-day situations.

This book is provocative and unsettle the reader, likely by design, prompting us to self-reflect. It's  intent is constructive, encouraging us to improve ourselves. At this historical moment, our country faces a pivotal opportunity to leap forward by leveraging a growing economy and demographic advantages. However, to realize this potential, Indians must find the courage to introspect, acknowledge our shortcomings, address them, and evolve into a sustainable and equitable economic and cultural society within the global order.

Today is a moment in time in history, our country is standing at a critical juncture to leapfrog by taking advantage of the growing economy and demographic dividends. However, for making this into a reality, we Indians have to muster the courage to look inward to recognise our fallacies, work upon them to reform and evolve into a sustainable & equitable economic and cultural society and country, in the world order.

I will leave it at that, the ten chapters of the book throw light on countless daily situations and explain our behaviours, through game theory and behavioural economics.

One standout Wow! A factor in this book for me is chapter 10: Game Theory and the Bhagavad Gita. It is very creative of the author, and how, in his reading and interpretation of the Gita, he makes connections of Krishna's teachings to Arjuna with Game Theory.

Another Wow! factor, ending of the book. The author creatively links Rabindranath Tagore's inspiring poem, 'Where the Mind Is without Fear' with present day context of Indian cities non-functioning city municipalities and governance. 

You may choose to indulge yourself, looking into the mirror and self-reflection. Happy reading!