Yuki Tanaka
“When I repair a broken bowl with gold, I am not hiding the damage. I am honoring the history of the object.”
Meet Yuki. His work is kintsugi — mending broken pottery with lacquer and gold powder, so the cracks become the most beautiful part. He trained seven years under his master before he was trusted to work a piece alone. Home is a small machiya townhouse that has held his family for three generations; each morning he sits at its little Shinto shrine before walking to the workshop, and some days he stops at the Buddhist temple where his grandfather once prayed. To Yuki the two were never in conflict — just two ways of seeing the same truth about impermanence and beauty.
- Craft
- Kintsugi (golden repair)
- Morning ritual
- Meditation and green tea
- Favorite season
- Autumn — momiji
- Philosophy
- Wabi-sabi — beauty in imperfection
“Japanese people follow only one religion and are deeply uniform in their beliefs.”
Most Japanese people practice both Shinto and Buddhism simultaneously. Shinto handles life celebrations (births, weddings) while Buddhism handles funerals and ancestor veneration. Japan has over 81,000 Shinto shrines and 77,000 Buddhist temples. Many Japanese also incorporate Christian-style weddings. Religious pluralism is the norm, not the exception.
SourceAgency for Cultural Affairs, Japan — Annual statistics on religious corporations.
When you think of Japan, do you picture ancient temples and tradition?
That's natural. Japan does have ancient temples. But it also has robot restaurants, cutting-edge technology, and young people reimagining tradition. The truth is always more complex than the stereotype.
Good. Now ask yourself: what other countries do you have a simplified image of? What complexity are you missing?
Yuki finds beauty in broken things by highlighting their cracks with gold. Can you think of a time when something broken — a relationship, a plan, an object — became more beautiful because of how it was repaired?
You do not need to answer. Notice what feels familiar, what remains unfamiliar, and where your own experience differs.
Understanding does not require agreement. Sometimes paying closer attention is enough for today.
Repair something instead of replacing it
Find something broken today — a torn piece of clothing, a scratched surface, a strained relationship — and try to mend it. Imperfection is not failure. It is history made visible.
Note an act of kindness — today’s or your own. This stays on your device only; nothing is uploaded or counted publicly.
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
Ernest Hemingway