The story of Kintsugi is as follows. When a shogun in Japan, perhaps Yoshimasha, broke his pot, he sent it to China to be repaired. There, it was repaired with ugly staples. So, the next time a teapot broke, it was repaired at home, by gluing the pieces together with gold.
The newly pot, with its imperfections, was considered better looking than the original. It is said that people later broke things on purpose so they could perform their own Kintsugi on them.
This technique, of fixing the old broken thing to make something better is said to be part of the philosophy of wabi-sabi, where what is broken is embraced. This has been taken in psychology and even new age ideas to mean you can take your flaws, your tramas, and repair them to make yourself a beter or stronger person.
Okay, but this idea of gluing the broken things together with gold is said to have originated toward the end of the middle ages.
A treasure found in Apahida, a suburb of Cluj-Napoca, consisted of items glued together with gold. This find was said to have dated from the 5th century, about a thousand years before Kintsugi was “invented” in Japan. But it is not thought to have originated in Cluj Napoca, rather it is thought to have been brought over by the Germanic Gepid tribe from Scandinavia.
This treasure was discovered in Cluj two years ago, although it wasn’t a unique find. Other Germanic peoples had left treasure pieces that were repaired with gold throughout Europe. The reason and psychology of this art are not fully known, but perhaps the owners found the pieces repaired with gold to be more beautiful or valuable than the original pre-broken items.
Now remember, although Kintsagi is thought to be an ancient art, its origin is legendary. Or should we say, just a legend. We can’t be certain how Kintsagi started, or whether it really originated in Japan. We can only be certain of its current popularity, and the effect it has had in fields like positive psychology and motivational speaking.
But yeah, perhaps the art of Kintsagi was in Cluj one thousand years before it reached Japan.
Edit, 10 January 2026: here is a video in French about current trends in museum restauration. It doesn’t take everything we wrote into account, but it is an interesting way of comparing recent Western (French) and Japanese practices.