Ju Ci: The Art of Repairing Porcelain

Ju ci (锔瓷), the Chinese craft of repairing broken porcelain has roots dating back to the Song dynasty (960-1279), with illustrations of craftsmen mending pots appearing in Chinese paintings as early as the 13th century. Ju ci is now recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage, something of enduring value to the culture of mankind.

Ju ci involves embedding metal staples into fractured ceramics to restore their functionality and beauty, a delicate process that demands extraordinary skill. Artisans must carefully drill into fragile porcelain, and carefully place handcrafted pieces of copper, iron, or even gold and silver staples to cover up the flaws while preserving the aesthetic integrity of the original object.

But Ju ci is more than a technique; like its close cousin, Kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics using lacquer and gold), Ju ci embraces a profound philosophy: that of celebrating “beauty of the imperfect.” In Ju ci , as in Kintsugi, cracks are carefully mended, and the flaws lovingly transformed into an object with a renewed identity, with the mended cracks telling a story of resilience, like the scars we carry in life.