The word Kintugi is made up of kint meaning gold and sugi meaning joinery, golden joinery. Fujimura talked to us about not only the form but the metaphor that is carried in the form. We are all broken people and the brokenness can be transformative if we allow it to be. We can readily see this in some people who have experienced great pain and suffering in their lives. They have been able to mend in ways that make them even more beautiful people. This is not an easy thing to come to and in the end, this too is grace.
Jenny has a scar on her leg from a surgery to remove a cancerous melanoma. Early on she would ask if I thought the scar was ugly. In fact I thought the surgeon had done a good job of it and it has become a beautiful scar, a reminder of having been mended and healed of something that could have been deadly. There is inner brokenness that can be mended as well and the healing that occurs can have a similar transformation, the golden joinery that is happening is like a mysterious art form if we give our broken pieces over to the Kintsugi Master.