Hello everyone and Grace here hosting Haibun Monday.

When you accidentally break a vase or a plate, chances are you throw it away. However, what if you could put it back together and have it look even more beautiful than before?

That is the idea behind kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art of restoring broken ceramic pottery that might otherwise end up in the trash. In Japanese, the word kintsugi means “golden rejoining,” and refers to the Zen philosophy of acknowleding flaws, embracing change, and restoring an object with a newfound beauty. It’s believed by many that this special technique originated in the 15th century when Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu accidentally broke his favorite tea bowl and sent it to China for repairs. When it was returned to him — pieced together with metal staples — he charged his Japanese craftsmen with finding a more aesthetic repair method.

What they developed was the method of kintsugi, which uses lacquer dusted with gold or other metals to repair cracked, chipped, or broken dishes. The results are gorgeous.

The idea behind kintsugi is to highlight — rather than hide — an object’s flaws, making them beautiful instead of unsightly. This is a prominent theme in the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which is all about embracing imperfections and revering authenticity above all.

Traditional kintsugi uses urushi lacquer (derived from the sap of a Chinese lacquer tree) to repair broken pottery. The process involves applying multiple layers of lacquer to the seam using a fine-point paintbrush, letting it dry, removing excess with turpentine oil, then polishing the surface until smooth. The final layer of lacquer is coated in golden dust and then burnished to result in a beautifully repaired object.

Sources:  Here and here.

Here’s a video:

Our challenge is to write about finding beauty in the broken pieces or imperfection and/or the process of mending the broken pieces. You can write about a “broken” object, cityscape or landscape, or personal experience of mending and embracing imperfections. Please write 1 to 2 tight paragraphs of “prose”, followed by a nature-themed “haiku”.

Being that this is Haibun Monday, please write a haibun based on the prompt, ending with a seasonal haiku.   Don’t forget to visit and comment on others poetry, especially to those who have visited you.

What to do after you have written:

• Post your haibun to your blog
• Add a link (direct URL address) of your poem via the ‘Mr Linky’ below
• Add the link for the dVerse posting so others can find their way here
• Read and comment on other people’s work to let them know it’s being read
• Share via your favorite social media platforms
• Most importantly, enjoy yourself!

See you at the poetry trail ~  Grace