From Lament to Glory: How an Ancient Japanese Tradition Can Heal Our Divided Societies

A repair of crack pottery tea cup on Aug. 8, 2018. Riya Takahashi/iStock

Standing on the stage at a conference in southeast London, Makoto Fujimura, a leading Japanese contemporary artist, picks up a small ceramic bowl on a table, carefully holding it in his hands, and tells over 1,000 audience members this could be the key to reviving Western society.

The bowl was once shattered, but it has been remade, stronger, and glowing with a renewed brilliance.

Mr. Fujimura is discussing the traditional Japanese art form of Kintsugi, which dates back to the 16th century and means the “joining of gold.”

Kintsugi has gained popularity in recent years, not only as a pottery technique, but also as a worldview that teaches people to treasure all parts of history rather than to discard it.

It is also linked to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an appreciation of beauty that is imperfect.

Kintsugi, The Joining Of Gold

“[As an artist,] I am aware of the difficulty of preserving culture, and at the same time, I’m aware of facing ground zero every day, and then daring to create a future,” the Japanese artist told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference on Nov. 2, while drawing from his experience surviving the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

This is exemplified by Kintsugi, he said.

Japanese contemporary artist Makoto Fujimura speaks at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London, England, on Nov. 2, 2023. Screenshot by The Epoch Times/ Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

According to Mr. Fujimura, the philosophy centres on renewal through destruction, as well as the art of “beholding” the damage wrought, the courage to start from nothing, and the will to care.

“[With a broken bowl], generations of masters will hold on to the fragments without doing anything to respect what has happened, to understand that some traumas take generations before you begin to think about mending them,”  Mr. Fujimura said.

“[Then] they sprinkle gold on top, therefore accentuating the fractures, and making something new out of the brokenness.”

The result, he noted, was even more valuable than the original because it had been through the hands of two masters and a family of owners who all valued the brokenness and trauma.

Mr. Fujimura also said Kintsugi could also provide an alternative way of thinking to the rampant consumerism prevalent today.

“If we drop an iPhone, we want a new one, or we want to at least get it fixed, so it looks like the new one,” he said, “A Kintsugi master, instead, highlights the fractures.”

What Kintsugi Means In the Context Of the Culture Wars

Recent decades have seen the steady spread of radical progressive, and socialist movements sweep through Western societies, driving the steady erosion of once agreed-upon traditional values.

Most notably, in 2020 and 2021, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement—co-founded by self-described Marxists—fomented violent protests, looting, and unrest in the United States and in the West.

The movement was built on the idea of Critical Race Theory, which views Western society as a struggle between two classes—a white, powerful class oppressing a black class.

A man holds a Black Lives Matter sign as a police car burns in front of him during a protest over the death of George Floyd, outside CNN Center in Atlanta on May 29, 2020. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

BLM has not only spurred riots, but has led to actions such as “taking a knee,” or destroying monuments and memorials.

The movement has also reached Australia, where protesters have spray painted and defaced statues such as that of Captain James Cook, accusing the early pioneer of embodying colonialism and Indigenous genocide.

This narrative has been repeated by some architects behind the recently defeated Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal, which suggests taxpayers should pay “reparations” to Indigenous Australians for past “criminal acts” through an annual land tax.

The Voice referendum was defeated with a resounding victory for No campaigners.

Japanese contemporary artist Makoto Fujimura shows a bowl with golden lacquer repair to the audience at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London, England, on Nov. 2, 2023. Screenshot by The Epoch Times/ Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

At the same time, the public education system has also been the target of radical activists with curriculums now teaching gender fluidity and sexual experimentation to children and teenagers.

In the UK, one school was condemned for asking students to choose from over 40 gender pronouns, while in the United States and Australia, teenagers struggling with their gender have been at odds with their parents.

“Do you want to know how you might win cultural war?” Mr. Fujimura asked the audience, “It is to care for culture. It is [to] love your enemies, facing the devastation of ground zero.”

“I have thought about that, struggled with it. And, of course, that is an impossibility, right?”

Mr. Fujimura recalled his experience of surviving Sept. 11, and was now “able to offer beauty back into a devastated world.”

“You know, we are all survivors. We are all survivors, especially after the pandemic. It’s a miracle that anyone is here, especially after the pandemic.”

Faith And the Arts

The Japanese artist also noted the importance of faith and arts in the cultural revival.

“What we do when we are standing in the ashes of ground zero, is to create the future by using our imagination, first by faith,” he said.

“Without faith, we cannot create a future.”

Regardless of which cultures people are from, the path to mending society is a journey “from lament to glory,” Mr. Fujimura added.

“We begin by beholding and lamenting, but the act done in faith will create a vista of glory, something new that couldn’t have existed before the trauma.”