Everything that has a form will one day break.
And yet, we long to hold on—to the memories we share with the things we cherish, and to the time that lives within them.

To repair a vessel is not merely to restore its shape or trace its scars in gold.
It is to listen closely to the time it has lived and the stories it carries, and to mend it so that it may continue to accompany us into the future.

The practice of repairing vessels with urushi lacquer began in ancient Japan thousands of years ago.
It has been passed down through generations by a deeply human desire: the wish to recover, once more, the forms and memories that seemed lost.

The origin of my own kintsugi practice lies in a teapot my mother gave me when I left home at eighteen.

She wanted me to have something that would bring comfort during the unfamiliar days of living alone—a pot with which I could brew tea, gather friends, and create a place of warmth and conversation.

Knowing the love and care that resided in that vessel, I was devastated when I accidentally broke it.
The sense of loss remained with me for many years, like a faint bruise hidden deep within the heart.

Unable to let the broken teapot go, I kept it for more than a decade.

Then I encountered a teacher devoted to the art of urushi repair.
As I learned to work with lacquer and became captivated by its beauty and resilience, I finally repaired the vessel with my own hands.

I watched its scars become part of a new landscape.
I felt the quiet ache I had carried for so long begin to dissolve.
And when I brewed tea in that teapot once again, I realized that what had been restored was not only its form.

I had regained a cherished memory, and begun a new chapter of time with the vessel itself.

Surely, a thousand years ago, someone else wished to repair a beloved object just as I did.
And a thousand years from now, someone will feel the same.

May this tradition of mending with urushi continue to exist beside all those who wish to preserve the time they share with the things they love.

With that hope, I repair vessels with urushi.

Aiko Zushi