Kintsugi in Japan: where to try a kintsugi workshop in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa and Osaka, what it costs, getting your own piece repaired, kits, care and the meaning behind the gold

What kintsugi is

Kintsugi is a way of mending broken pottery that lets the repair show. Instead of hiding a crack, the craftsperson glues the pieces back together with lacquer and covers the join with gold, so the line of gold becomes part of the piece. GO TOKYO, Tokyo's official travel site, describes it like this: "Kintsugi is a traditional craft focused on mending broken pottery with a mixture of lacquer, gold and other materials." The word joins the Japanese for gold, kin, with the word for joining, tsugi, and the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) gives a rough translation of golden joinery.

The gold is the part everyone sees, but most of a repair is lacquer. The lacquer is urushi, the sap of the lacquer tree. Kyoto's official tourism site, in a profile of the Kyoto kintsugi artist Mio Heki, explains: "In Japan the word urushi (漆) is used both for the lacquer tree itself and for the milky white sap it produces." Japan's Forestry Agency defines it in its latest white paper on forests and forestry: "漆は、樹木であるウルシから採取された樹液と樹脂の混合物を精製した塗料で、食器、工芸品、建造物等の塗装や接着に用いられてきた。", meaning that urushi is a coating refined from a mixture of the sap and resin taken from the lacquer tree, and that it has long been used to coat and to glue tableware, crafts and buildings.

The last layer of a traditional repair is a form of maki-e, the Japanese art of decorating a lacquered surface with a dusting of gold or silver powder. That is why many of the people who teach kintsugi in Japan are lacquer craftspeople first, as the sections on Kanazawa and Kyoto below show.

What the gold lines mean

A mended bowl is not meant to look new again. GO TOKYO puts the idea simply: "Instead of hiding cracks and blemishes, it puts them on display with gold." It adds: "Each piece of kintsugi pottery is unique and proudly bears its scars." JNTO's page on a kintsugi workshop in Kyoto says much the same: "Rather than throw broken ceramics away, this method breathes new life into them, making them more beautiful than ever."

Two Japanese ideas sit behind this. The first is thrift. GO TOKYO notes: "This craft epitomizes the principle of repairing old items before buying new." Mio Heki links kintsugi to mottainai, a word Kyoto's tourism site describes as "directly connected to the Buddhist concept of remorse over wasted and misused resources". The second is wabi-sabi. JNTO's blog on kintsugi says: "This technique of repair embodies the wabi-sabi aesthetic, which embraces the beauty in imperfection." Kyoto's profile of Mio Heki calls wabi-sabi "a philosophy that is at peace with the natural progression of life".

Traditional or modern kintsugi: the food-safe question

Not every piece sold or taught as kintsugi is made the same way, and the difference matters if you want to eat or drink from the result. Traditional kintsugi uses urushi from start to finish. Tsugu Tsugu, the Tokyo kintsugi company whose studios appear below, explains on its history page: "Traditionally, kintsugi is entirely based on the use of urushi lacquer." JNTO's page on Tsugu Tsugu's Asakusa workshop makes the point about food: "Tsugu Tsugu is specialized in traditional kintsugi, the only food safe kintsugi method." It goes on: "While modern techniques rely on chemical glues, traditional kintsugi exclusively uses natural ingredients such as urushi lacquer."

Modern kintsugi swaps urushi for synthetic glue and putty, and often swaps the gold for brass powder. JNTO's blog explains why some people do it: "Some craftsmen opt to shorten the drying time and expense by using synthetic epoxy and lacquer made of cashew shells." Tsugu Tsugu's history page says this method, which it calls Modern Kintsugi, was developed between 1989 and 2019, the Heisei period, to make repairs easier and quicker with fast-drying chemical resins, and it warns: "However, it is important to stress that this method should be strictly reserved for decorative objects because it is not food safe."

Neither kind makes a piece as strong as it was before it broke. Tsugu Tsugu's repair page says it plainly: "Repaired items can be used as tableware, but will not return to their original strength." The care rules later in this guide explain how to treat a mended piece.

Urushi and your skin

Urushi has one drawback: until it has hardened, it can irritate the skin. Tsugu Tsugu's guide to kits warns: "Raw urushi lacquer is known for its capacity to cause strong allergic reactions similar to those of poison ivy when put in direct contact with the skin." The same page reassures: "When completely dry, urushi lacquer does not cause allergic reactions." So a finished piece is safe to handle, and the risk is only while you are working with fresh lacquer.

Tsugu Tsugu's notice about its new Kyoto studio explains that urushi is a relative of poison ivy. The studio hands out gloves and teaches you to work with the lacquer safely, and it asks anyone whose skin has reacted to lacquer, or to poison ivy or poison oak, in the past to mention it when booking. If you prefer not to take the risk, the synthetic workshops described below give you the look of kintsugi without the rash.

How a traditional repair is made

A traditional repair is slow because urushi does not dry the way paint does. It hardens by taking in moisture from the air, so each coat has to rest in a warm, damp place before the next one goes on. Mio Heki keeps her work in a muro, a wooden cupboard that once belonged to her aunt, and keeps the air inside moist by spraying it with water. Kyoto's tourism site gives the conditions as about 70% humidity at 20 to 24°C, and adds: "When used as glue, it takes about two weeks for urushi to dry."

Kintsugi Souke, a kintsugi studio in Tokyo whose master Showzi Tsukamoto teaches the craft, sets out the stages of a full repair on JNTO's site. In short, the order is glue, fill, coat many times, then gold.

The repetition is what takes the time. Kintsugi Souke says of the black coat and the charcoal polishing: "This process is repeated at least eight times." Tsugu Tsugu, which sells kits for doing it at home, says one coat can take from a few days to a week to dry, and concludes: "Therefore, it is very common to take 2-3 months to complete a kintsugi restoration project." Its own professional repairs take at least three months each.

The tools are natural too. Every wooden spatula Mio Heki uses is one she made herself, from Japanese cypress for flexible ones and bamboo for stiffer ones used on bigger pieces. She mixes her filling paste from urushi and soil from the Yamashina area of Kyoto, ground fine, which Kyoto's tourism site describes as a Kyoto tradition. She tells the site: "I use all kinds of tools for abrading, like this sea bream tooth or this agate stone." The site sums her up: "As a craftsperson, Heki only uses natural components."

Tsugu Tsugu's history page explains why lacquer craftspeople do this work: "In fact, the most talented kintsugi masters are very often urushi masters."

Urushi in Japan today

Urushi itself has become rare in Japan. The Forestry Agency's white paper says that Japan used 31.2 tonnes of it in 2024, only 6.9% of the amount it used in 1980, as chemical paints took over and the way people live changed. Only 1.8 tonnes, or 5.7% of what was used, was produced in Japan. That was 8.5% more than the year before, because good weather in Iwate Prefecture and the other main producing areas gave the tappers more working days.

One reason for the shortage is how little a tree gives. Kyoto's profile of Mio Heki notes: "One tree yields only about 200 grams of urushi during its whole lifespan." In fiscal 2014 the Agency for Cultural Affairs decided that repairs to buildings that are National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties should, as a rule, use Japanese urushi. Producing areas then worked to grow more and raised the price they paid producers for raw lacquer, and production has risen since 2015, but it is still below the roughly 2.2 tonnes a year, on average, that those repairs would need if they were done on an ideal cycle. Producing areas are planting new trees. In the Yakuno area of Fukuchiyama, in Kyoto Prefecture, a non-profit group aims to plant 100 lacquer trees a year, and its trees have grown from about 400 when it was founded in 2012 to about 1,800, while the number of tappers has gone from one to five.

Kintsugi workshops: what to expect

Because urushi takes so long to harden, no short workshop can take a broken bowl all the way to a finished one. JNTO's page on the Asakusa workshop explains: "The curing process of urushi is very slow and it highly depends on temperature and humidity levels." It continues: "That is why it is highly uncommon to have a one-hour experience for traditional kintsugi." The Kanazawa workshop makes the same point about its own session: "It cannot be completed from beginning to end during a 60-minute travel experience."

So a traditional workshop works the other way round. The teachers prepare the pieces in the weeks before, and you do one of the middle stages on one piece and the last stage, the gold, on another. You leave with a real kintsugi piece, but you will not have done every step yourself. Workshops that use synthetic materials are different: those materials set much faster, so you can mend a piece from start to finish in an hour or so, although the result is for decoration and not for food.

A note on the photos: they show Senso-ji in Asakusa, Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, the Higashi Chaya district of Kanazawa and Osaka Castle, not pictures of the workshops.

Kintsugi workshops in Tokyo

Tokyo has the widest choice, and most of it comes from Tsugu Tsugu. The company was founded by Yuki Matano, who learned kintsugi under Master Shibata, a lacquer artist of more than 30 years, and its name comes from tsugu, to join or connect. It repairs more than 100 pieces a month and has two studios in the city. The Ebisu studio is on the ground floor at 2-21-2 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, a 12-minute walk from Ebisu Station or 8 minutes from Hiroo Station. The Asakusa studio, which opened in May 2022, is on the ground floor at 1-1-2 Kaminarimon, Taito-ku, a walk of three or four minutes from Asakusa Station and three from Tawaramachi. JNTO notes that it is "only a few streets away from Sensoji Temple", so it is easy to fit into a day in Asakusa.

Tsugu Tsugu's traditional workshop

This is the workshop most visitors mean when they search for kintsugi in Tokyo. It lasts 90 minutes, costs 22,000 yen a person, is taught in English and is open to anyone aged 13 or over. The Ebisu studio takes up to six people a session and Asakusa up to fifteen. Tsugu Tsugu describes its materials like this: "We use traditional kintsugi techniques with natural, genuine urushi lacquer — the same material that has been used in Japan for centuries to repair tableware." The gold is 23K gold powder.

The session has two halves. The workshop page explains the first: "From January 2026, the first half includes one intermediate kintsugi step—such as gluing, filling chips, sabi-urushi leveling, or applying black urushi." The team picks the step to suit the piece, and the work you do is passed on to later guests, like a relay, so each broken piece is mended by many hands. In the second half you finish a vessel that has already had its black lacquer, with what the studio calls "the most impressive step of traditional kintsugi repair: the dusting of gold powder over the restored parts". In JNTO's words: "Guided in English by experienced teachers, each participant will apply the finishing layer using red lacquer and gold powder."

You cannot choose or reserve a particular piece, because they depend on what the studio has ready, and the damage is kept to the level shown in the examples so the work fits into 90 minutes. Now and then a more badly broken piece is available for an extra fee. Bring nothing. The studio asks: "Please wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty." It adds: "If you have long hair, we recommend bringing a hair clip." Groups may be able to borrow Japanese working clothes. For a private session, you pay for six people and have the room to yourselves. A time outside the listed sessions can cost 5,500 yen more per group. The 10% coupon on Tsugu Tsugu's website does not apply to workshops.

The fresh urushi on your piece still has to harden, so the studio gives you three ways to take it home. You can carry it away that day in a warm drying box, leave it at the studio and collect it after a day or more, or have it sent on, to your hotel or abroad, roughly a week later.

A longer wait is better for the lacquer in each case. GO TOKYO points out the third choice: "As it takes time for kintsugi to cure, Tsugu Tsugu can arrange to send your finished piece to you by courier service."

The kintsugi-style workshop, without urushi

For families, for anyone whose skin reacts to lacquer, or for a cheaper taste of the craft, Tsugu Tsugu runs a second workshop. Its page sums it up: "Kintsugi-style is a kintsugi-inspired craft experience that does not use urushi lacquer." It explains the materials: "We use epoxy and a brass-colored finish to create decorative joints." It lasts 60 minutes, costs 6,600 yen a person and is open to children from six, with up to six people a session at Ebisu and fifteen at Asakusa.

Instead of mending a bowl, you turn broken pottery, sea glass or both into chopstick rests, earrings, key rings and other small things, as many as you have time for, and you take them home that day. The studio is clear about what they are for: "It is not intended for repairing tableware for food use." It also answers the question of whether the workshop suits people with sensitive skin: "Yes—this workshop is recommended for those who are sensitive to urushi lacquer".

Regular classes for a longer stay

If you will be in Tokyo for a few months, you can mend a piece of your own from beginning to end. Tsugu Tsugu says: "if you are staying in Japan for a longer period (about two to three months), it is possible to repair the same vessel from start to finish in the regular classes." Classes last 90 minutes and take up to six people at each of the Ebisu and Asakusa studios. The studio suggests about ten classes for a whole repair, and some steps can be done at home between classes. On the language, it says: "Both our Ebisu and Asakusa studios have staff who can communicate in English and French." It also warns: "Some classes are led by instructors with limited English ability." Ask the studio before you book.

The first payment for members includes a registration fee of 11,000 yen and a storage fee of 3,300 yen a year. On top of the course fee, everyone needs a Tsugu Kit of materials, which costs from 9,800 to 22,000 yen. The online classes were full when we checked.

Kintsugi Souke and Showzi Tsukamoto

For a longer lesson with a master, JNTO lists Kintsugi Souke and introduces its teacher: "Showzi Tsukamoto is a kintsugi master who has been working in the art since 1972." JNTO describes a career of more than 50 years, in which his work has won prizes and been shown in many countries. He teaches a one-day class of about four hours, and master classes of 6 or 12 days. JNTO says the classes include "an introduction to the philosophy behind this art", and that you go home with a soba cup mended in Japanese lacquer and 24k gold. The page adds: "All the workshops take place at the artist’s studio in Tokyo, in Japanese with an interpreter." It also says: "Necessary tools and materials are provided." JNTO does not give a price.

JNTO gives the nearest station as Higashi-Nagasaki, about 30 minutes by local train from Tokyo Station. The studio's own website was down for maintenance when we checked, so start from JNTO's pages, listed under Sources. For more on the city, see our Tokyo guide.

Kintsugi workshops in Kyoto

Kyoto gets its first Tsugu Tsugu studio on Sunday 1 November 2026. The company's notice begins "After five years of teaching kintsugi in Tokyo" and explains the choice of city: "Kyoto is a city that has spent centuries deciding what is worth keeping." The studio occupies a wooden house of two floors, built over 70 years ago, down a narrow lane in Higashiyama. From Kiyomizu-Gojo, a station on the Keihan Line, it takes about 10 minutes on foot, and it is close to Kennin-ji, Rokuharamitsu-ji and Yasui Konpiragu, and a short walk from Kiyomizu-dera and Gion. Two kintsugi teachers from the Ebisu studio are moving to Kyoto to run it.

The ground floor is a shop that you can walk into without booking. It sells more than 100 mended vessels and the Tsugu Kit, which you can take home that day. The workshop is upstairs. It is the same 90-minute traditional workshop as in Tokyo, in English, for 22,000 yen, with up to ten people a session and 23K gold, and you can take your piece home the same day. The Kyoto notice gives the minimum age as 12, while the Tokyo workshop page says 13, so check when you book. The studio supplies the pieces. Its notice says: "please don't bring your own".

Bookings are open on Tsugu Tsugu's website, and the notice says "Booking directly through our own page is the best way to reserve". If you are nearby, you can also walk in, as long as a seat is free and you arrive no later than 30 minutes before the session starts.

The notice is firm about payment: "Card payment only. The Kyoto studio does not accept cash." Which cards work in Japan is explained in our card guide. Two other points in the notice affect visitors: you reach the upstairs rooms, and the toilet, by stairs, so the studio is not suitable for wheelchairs, and there is nowhere to leave a car or a bicycle. At first the studio will shut on Wednesdays, but the booking page is kept up to date and always shows the days it is really open.

The house sits among people's homes, and the studio asks guests to keep their voices low on the lane, to wait inside rather than by the door if they arrive early, and to leave the neighbouring houses out of their photos. Photos of the shop itself are welcome.

There is also a lacquer workshop in Kyoto listed by JNTO. "At Yamada Heiando Lacquerware, you can watch a demonstration by a skilled artisan before trying the art for yourself." JNTO says it is open all year but gives no price, so ask when you book. For the rest of your stay, our Kyoto guide can help.

Kintsugi workshop in Kanazawa

Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, has a long tradition of crafts, and its kintsugi workshop is taught by a family of lacquer artists. IN KANAZAWA HOUSE, which runs it, explains the background: "Kaga maki-e developed in Kanazawa alongside the city’s rich culture of crafts, tea ceremony and decorative arts." JNTO describes Kaga maki-e as the maki-e of the old Kaga region, now Ishikawa Prefecture.

The teachers are the Kiyose family. Akihito Kiyose, born in Sakai in 1969, is the third generation. He moved to Kanazawa at five and grew up watching the first Ikko Kiyose, his grandfather, at work in the family studio. He turned professional at 23. In 2006 he became a certified Traditional Craftsman, and he was named an Ishikawa Excellent Craftsman in 2012. His daughter Rin Kiyose, the fourth generation, studied at Kanazawa College of Art and learned the craft from her father.

The shared session runs three times a day, at 10:00 to 11:15, 12:00 to 13:15 and 14:00 to 15:15, and is taught by Rin Kiyose. It takes one to four guests, and solo travellers are welcome. What you mend depends on what is available on the day. To bring pottery of your own, contact the workshop separately, and if poor eyesight or stiff hands might make the work hard, say so before you book.

The private session is with Akihito Kiyose, in the workshop in his home. You meet the guide at 14:20 near the IPPON MATSU RIKKYO convenience store and walk over together, and the page is firm: "Please do not go directly to the workshop." After a tour of the workshop from 14:30, you do the kintsugi from 14:45 to 16:00, putting the last coat of lacquer on a join and then the gold. A guide who speaks a language other than English costs 15,000 yen more. As in any artist's studio, the page asks: "Please respect the artisan’s workspace and follow all instructions concerning photography, touching tools and handling artworks."

Both sessions take payment by card or PayPal. If a session is cancelled, guests who booked on its official website get a full refund within seven days, while bookings made elsewhere follow that site's rules. JNTO gives the journey: "To get to Kanazawa, take the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo Station (two hours 30 minutes)." From Kanazawa Station, the meeting point is a walk of about 15 minutes. Our Ishikawa guide has more on the city.

Kintsugi workshop near Osaka (Minoh)

If you want to mend your own broken pieces while you are in Japan, the workshop in Minoh, a city in the north of Osaka Prefecture, is the one to choose. It is listed on OSAKA-INFO EXPERIENCE, a booking site for experiences in Osaka, and it uses modern materials: "We use synthetic lacquer, synthetic adhesives, putty, and other modern techniques to repair the vessels, so there is no risk of developing a rash on your hands."

Each person can bring up to three of their own pieces, and the listing says: "Up to 4 cracks ok per one piece of your own ceramics". JNTO's blog on kintsugi recommends exactly this: "If you are coming to Japan, take the opportunity to book a workshop where you can bring your own piece in for repair." Bring them already broken, though. The listing warns: "Breaking vessels at the venue is dangerous and is not permitted." The tools are provided, and the listing promises that you can come "empty-handed".

The materials are synthetic, but they still need time. The listing explains that "it is necessary to let the finished vessel sit and the bonding agents set for two weeks", and looks on the bright side: "But that only means you will have more to look forward to when you return home!" Pack the pieces carefully. The listing asks: "If possible, please prepare a big box to take your items home with you."

The workshop does not run every day, so check the dates on the listing. It takes two to eight people, and larger groups should ask. The meeting point is at the ticket gates of Sakurai Station on the Hankyu line, in the Sakurai district of Minoh. Cancellations are not refunded in full. The listing does not say whether the mended pieces can be used for food. Synthetic repairs in general are for decoration, as the section on food safety above explains, so ask before you eat or drink from them. For more ideas in and around the city, see our Osaka guide.

Kintsugi workshop prices compared

A group session costs from 6,600 yen to 25,000 yen a person, and a private one costs more. Most of the gap comes from the materials and from the hours of preparation behind each session. JNTO's blog points out that workshops use "different types of materials ranging from synthetic bond to genuine urushi lacquer", and gives a simple piece of advice: "Check the details in advance so you can choose a course that matches your pace and budget." The table puts the workshops in this guide side by side, at the prices listed when we checked in October 2026.

Traditional sessions cost more because the work starts long before you arrive. Tsugu Tsugu explains that in its traditional workshop "the vessel is partially prepared in advance, allowing you to focus on the process", and gives the reason: "A complete repair takes days to weeks (often longer), so it cannot be finished from scratch within 90 minutes." In return you leave with a piece mended in real urushi and gold. JNTO's page on the Asakusa studio puts it simply: "Once the lacquer has hardened, you will be able to take home your object dusted with gold." The kintsugi-style workshop costs less than a third as much, and Tsugu Tsugu's FAQ is clear that its metal is a different thing: "Brass finish is not certified as food safe."

The Kanazawa sessions cost the most per person. The private one comes to 40,000 yen each for two people, or 98,000 yen in all for three, a little under 33,000 yen each. The shared session's page is honest about its aims: "This is an introductory cultural workshop rather than a complete professional repair course." The private session's page promises: "You can take home the piece you helped complete." In Minoh, the listing counts a "Reasonable price that includes the cost of materials" among its strengths, and the pieces you mend are your own rather than the studio's.

To sum up, an afternoon and a wish for genuine urushi point to Tsugu Tsugu's traditional session, while a family with children under 13 needs the cheaper kintsugi-style class, which accepts six-year-olds. Kanazawa pairs the craft with tea and a family of lacquer artists, and Minoh is the place for things that broke at home. A stay of a few months opens up the regular classes, and Kintsugi Souke suits anyone who wants a long day with one master. JNTO's note on the Asakusa workshop applies to most of them: "Reservation in advance is necessary."

Having your own piece repaired in Tokyo

If something you love has broken, professionals can mend it for you. Tsugu Tsugu offers this at its two studios in the city: "Tsugu Tsugu Ebisu and Asakusa studios in Tokyo accept kintsugi repairs in person." The last two words matter. The company says that "we don't accept the repair request by the international shipping", because pieces damaged in the post push up the cost or end in a cancellation, so the piece has to travel to Tokyo with you. The repairs use genuine urushi alone, which is why a mended plate or cup can go back to holding food.

Repairs are slow. The page warns that "every repair requires a minimum of three months", and its longest wait so far has been a year. The two studios keep separate queues. Ebisu's is usually longer and Asakusa often finishes sooner, so choose Asakusa when time is short. For twice the quoted price, an express service moves a piece to the front of the line, but the natural lacquer still needs a month at the very least, and it is often hard to get a piece back in less than three months. Asakusa has no express service, since its normal times are already the quickest.

An estimate needs a booking. The repair page has a calendar of 30-minute appointments for each studio and says: "Reservations begin one month in advance." Go with a Japanese speaker if you can, because the page warns that "the kintsugi artist giving the estimate may not speak English, so please come with someone who speaks Japanese". If that is not possible, the artist will talk to you through a translation app or device. You get a price there and then, and work begins once you have accepted it, agreed the date and paid.

You can also ask for a rough price before you travel. Email the studio pictures of the damage from different sides, with a ruler in the shot. The final figure comes only after an artist has examined the piece, and it can rise, because owners tend to notice the big breaks and chips and miss fine cracks. An estimate holds for one week. If you decide against the repair, the studio offers three choices: mend it yourself with a Tsugu Kit, donate it so that students can practise on it in lessons and workshops, or take it home again.

When the work is done, Tsugu Tsugu sends an email, so keep an eye on your inbox. The page then asks: "Please come to the same studio where you left your item within 1 month after we notify you of the completion." You cannot pick it up at the other studio instead. Posting is possible inside the country only: "We can ship your item to addresses only in Japan." Ask for it when you hand the piece in and pay for it with the repair, or pay later through a link the studio sends. The studio packs with care, but cannot promise that nothing will happen on the way.

Before the work starts, you sign an agreement. In it you accept that the company may pass the repair to another craftsperson, may dispose of the piece if you cannot be reached or have not collected it within a month, and may share photos of the vessel on social media to promote kintsugi. Customers from overseas also give up the warranty for a second repair if the join breaks again. For a visitor, all this means planning a return to Tokyo, or having an address in Japan where the piece can be sent.

What a repair costs

Every request costs at least 3,300 yen, however small the damage. Chips are priced by size, cracks by their length, and broken pieces by how many parts there are and how long the joins run. Some work costs extra. Long, narrow things such as spoons and sticks may need a cloth wrapping, at 3,300 yen a part, and a very large missing area may be filled with a piece of wood made to fit, from 5,500 yen. Glue from an earlier repair has to come off first, for a fee that depends on how much there is. Bring every fragment, because gaps take longer and cost more to fill, and very large ones may be refused. Nothing longer than 30 cm fits the drying chamber, so larger pieces cannot be accepted.

Finishes and what can be mended

Gold, at 23 karats, is what most people pick, but the studio also suggests matching the finish to the colour of the plate and to your taste. Silver and platinum are the paler metals, and platinum is the more muted of the two and the slower to rust. Black urushi and Bengal red, a shade near vermilion, are the other choices, and the one colour kintsugi cannot make is pure white. The metals come as two kinds of powder, and maru powder costs more than keshi: half as much again for gold, and a fifth more for silver.

The studios repair pottery, ceramics, porcelain and ornaments. Some things can be mended but are limited afterwards. A donabe, the earthenware pot used over a flame, cannot go back on the fire once mended, and neither can its lid. A vase with a mended bottom should not stand in water for long, though it can still hold dried flowers. Bracelets, rings and other pieces with small joins are for display only. Wooden things count as re-coating with urushi rather than kintsugi, which the studios do not take on, and metal is not accepted either. Some jade can be mended and some cannot, and the Tsugu Kit cannot be used on it.

Glass

Glass is a special case. Mio Heki, a kintsugi artist in Kyoto, told the city's tourism association: "Most kintsugi artists don’t want to work with broken glass." She explained that its surface is harder to polish and put together than ceramic, but that she enjoys the challenge, and she uses only pure lacquer as the glue. Tsugu Tsugu works differently: "Synthetic resins may be used in glass repair due to the weak adhesion of lacquer to glass." Its agreement adds that some ingredients in these resins have never been tested under food safety law, and sets one firm rule: "Do not use hot water in glass repair items." For a one-day event at a ceramics shop in Asakusa in July 2026, the company also listed thin glassware, small or badly shattered glass and delicate glass stems among the things it could not take.

Buying a piece that is already mended

If you would rather not wait, buy a vessel that has already been mended. Tsugu Tsugu says of the pieces it sells: "Each kintsugi vessel takes over three months to craft." Every one is unique, so you can buy only what is in stock. Pieces that can travel abroad fairly safely are sold online, and larger ones only at the studios, because of the risk of damage in international shipping. The notice about the new Kyoto shop adds: "Many of our visitors buy a piece as a gift." For more ideas, see our souvenir guide.

Because no two pieces are alike, the one you want may sell just before you arrive. Each studio posts fresh pictures of what it has on its Google Maps page once a week, and these show properly on a smartphone rather than a desktop browser. The company cannot put a piece aside for you, and customers who come to the shop get first choice. If you see a piece you like in the online store, buying it there is the surer way to get it.

Kintsugi kits to use at home

To do a full traditional repair yourself, after your trip or instead of a workshop, you can order a kit from Tsugu Tsugu. Its three kits, the Starter, the Traditional and the Gold Only, are "made entirely of genuine urushi lacquer and natural mineral pigments", and more than 10,000 people around the world have ordered one since the company began selling them in 2020. They are made for pottery, porcelain and ceramics. They cannot mend glass or metal, and wood can be mended with lacquer, though it needs steps the kit's manual leaves out. The prices were not on the pages we read, so check the online shop. The new Kyoto shop will keep them on its shelves too.

Urushi dries best at 20 to 25°C (68 to 77°F) with humidity of about 70 to 80%. To give it those conditions at home, make an urushi box: any carton, or a wooden or plastic box with a lid, plus a damp towel and a sheet of plastic. Clean the broken piece first, because oil, salt or stains stop urushi from hardening, and let it dry well before you begin. As explained earlier in this guide, each coat takes days, and the whole repair takes months.

Everything specialised comes in the kit, but a few ordinary things are needed as well: flour and vegetable oil from the kitchen, a pair of scissors, a craft knife, tissues and water, extra gloves, disinfecting alcohol, cling film, elastic bands and the lidded box. Before the kit arrives, the company suggests watching its kintsugi tutorial on YouTube, gathering these things and setting aside quiet time to work.

Remember the warning in the section on urushi and your skin. Tsugu Tsugu strongly recommends gloves and covered arms for kit users, and safety goggles for extra protection. If raw urushi touches your skin, wipe it off with vegetable oil before it hardens. The company accepts no responsibility if the urushi in its kits causes an allergic reaction.

An order usually takes two or three days to prepare. Most go abroad by FedEx and arrive in about a week. For orders placed from 3 July 2026, Tsugu Tsugu prepays the duties, taxes and customs fees on eligible international orders where it can, so shipping may look dearer, but in most cases there should be nothing more to pay when the parcel arrives. Customs may still ask for papers such as an invoice, a TSCA form or a safety data sheet (SDS), and the company asks you to contact it at once if that happens. VAT or sales tax may still be added at checkout, depending on where you live. Orders made up only of individual items fall outside this scheme and may face import charges on delivery.

Caring for a kintsugi piece

Whether you mend it yourself, buy it or have it repaired, a kintsugi piece needs gentle handling. Tsugu Tsugu's kit guide sets the standard: "Items repaired using traditional kintsugi techniques should be treated with the same care as traditional lacquerware." Its repair page adds that a mended piece will never be quite as strong as it was before it broke, although the urushi joins grow stronger with time.

In practice, give the urushi at least four weeks after the repair is finished, then use the piece as you would a good lacquer bowl. Clean it at the sink, never in a machine, and keep it away from ovens, microwaves, flames and steamers. The repair page confirms: "You can use regular dish soap to wash items repaired with kintsugi." Sharp knives and forks, other crockery on the shelf, long soaks, long stays in the fridge and strong sunlight can all harm the joins.

Heat is the main limit. The kit guide explains: "Urushi lacquer which is used for kintsugi repair has a heat resistance temperature of approximately 95°C." So a mended donabe or its lid is best used to serve food rather than to cook it, and sudden changes of temperature, such as boiling water poured into a cold cup, should be avoided. Thin parts like handles never regain their full strength, so hold a mended cup by its body. If it breaks again because it was held by the handle alone, the warranty does not cover it.

The history of kintsugi and the stories behind it

The glue in kintsugi is far older than the gold. Tsugu Tsugu's history page says: "There is evidence of urushi lacquer being used for repair and as natural glue in Japan from the Jomon period (14,000 BC to 300 BC)." Lacquer survives on stone spear tips from that era, and China used it in a similar way, so no one can say which country first mended things with it. Gold came thousands of years later.

Gold repairs are usually traced to the Muromachi period. JNTO's page on Kintsugi Souke says: "The origin of kintsugi is said to date back to the Muromachi period (1336-1573), when the art of tea ceremony flourished." Tsugu Tsugu makes the same link: "The development of kintsugi craft is directly linked to the spread of the tea ceremony around the country." Tea sets were very valuable then, so when one chipped or cracked, its owner had it mended and decorated with lacquer and gold. JNTO's blog counts the history in centuries: "For more than 500 years, pottery in Japan has found a new lease of life through kintsugi, the traditional Japanese art form of sealing cracks with lacquer and gold powder." For more on the tea world that shaped the craft, see our tea ceremony guide.

Before gold, broken pots were held together with metal. The same blog explains: "In the case of pottery, artisans used to repair broken ceramic using metal staples before adhesives were readily available." The best-known story starts with such a repair. The Kyoto City Tourism Association tells it: "Legend has it that the traditional technique of kintsugi handicraft was developed around the 15th century as a way to please the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, after he had broken his favorite tea bowl." The bowl went to China for mending and came back stapled, which did not please him, so craftspeople in Japan looked for a more beautiful way. The account ends: "By stuffing the cracks with gold they transformed it into a piece of treasure."

A real bowl with staples is linked to Yoshimasa too. It is a celadon tea bowl named Bakohan, made at the Longquan kilns in China under the Southern Song dynasty in the 12th or 13th century, and it is an Important Cultural Property kept at the Tokyo National Museum. In spring 2017 the museum held a large exhibition on the history of the tea ceremony. Introducing it in the magazine of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the museum's press office named the bowl among the treasures on show and called its Yoshimasa story extremely famous, although the article does not retell it. The bowl shows the kind of repair that kintsugi replaced.

Kintsugi grew up in the workshops of lacquer makers. Tsugu Tsugu notes: "Historically, kintsugi has often been a side-activity for craftsmen specialized in lacquerware." They mended pottery mostly in winter. In the colder months their main work, making lacquerware and lacquer work for temples, was slow, and kintsugi helped make up for it. The company adds: "It is also worth noting that, although lacquerware had developed both in Japan and China, the combination of gold and lacquer for restoration is limited to Japan."

Tsugu Tsugu retells both stories. In the folktale Tsutsuizutsu, a servant at a teahouse breaks one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's favourite bowls, a mistake that could cost him his life. He repairs it with kintsugi and hands it back to Hideyoshi together with a song, and the lord's anger fades. The second story is about yobitsugi, a kind of kintsugi that joins pieces of different vessels into a new one, typically about 60 to 70% from the first and 30 to 40% from the second. In the Sengoku period, the story goes, rival leaders who made peace over tea had the tea sets from that meeting joined in this way. Neither tale can be proved, so treat them as part of the craft's folklore.

Another repair grew up in the Edo period. Yakitsugi mends a crack or chip with clay and then bakes the piece in a fire. Tsugu Tsugu says: "This technique is still used today." It costs less than kintsugi because it needs no gold, but baking at very high heat can change the colour of the piece, so it does not suit every vessel.

For centuries, kintsugi stayed within rich and powerful circles. Most people ate from lacquered wooden tableware, not from pottery, so the ways of mending pottery stayed unknown to them. Kintsugi spread as everyday tableware changed from lacquerware to earthenware, and it became widely known in the Heisei period. One big push came from the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, a magnitude 9.0 quake that caused heavy damage in Tohoku and around Tokyo. Many people wanted to save pottery they treasured that the quake had broken, and that search led them to kintsugi. The quick method with fast-drying resins, described earlier in this guide, was also invented in these years.

In 2020, when many people around the world had to stay at home, kintsugi became a hobby to try at the kitchen table. The media presented it as a project you could do yourself, mended pottery began to appear all over Instagram, and the interest led to many requests for classes in the traditional method. Tsugu Tsugu says that kintsugi has been more popular abroad than in Japan since the early 1990s, and connects this with the idea of seeing beauty in flaws and with a wish to waste less.

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To cite or link to this page: Kintsugi in Japan: where to try a kintsugi workshop in Tokyo, Kyoto, Kanazawa and Osaka, what it costs, getting your own piece repaired, kits, care and the meaning behind the gold — Japan Pocket Guide, https://japanpocketguide.com/culture/kintsugi/ Copy