Decades ago, I was introduced to the Japanese art of kintsugi, which is the practice of repairing broken pottery with a lacquer made of powdered gold, silver, or platinum. It is similar to the maki-e technique, which is a Japanese lacquer decoration used in all sorts of mediums from paintings to vases to decorative boxes and other trinkets. Kintsugi (“golden joinery”) or kintsukuroi  (“golden repair”) is not just a practical art form for repairing damaged pottery, it is also a philosophy which views breakage and repair as an important part of the history of an object. The philosophy of kintsugi highlights rather than disguises where damage has occurred. By filling…