Discover the Japanese Spirit of “Beauty in Imperfection” through Modern Kintsugi in Tokyo

A Modern Kintsugi Workshop Steps from Tokyo Station

This experience takes place at Otonami Lounge Tokyo within Daimaru’s Tokyo store, directly connected to Tokyo Station. Opened in spring 2025, the lounge centers on the concept of “adult learning for lifestyle enrichment,” offering workshops, exhibitions, and other opportunities to engage with Japanese culture in a beautifully appointed space.

Its convenient location makes it easy to fit a creative activity into a day in Tokyo. In approximately 90 minutes, you can create a ceramic piece of your own and take it home the same day as a reminder of your experience.

Choose a Plate and Imagine What It Could Become

Before you begin, take a moment to look through six plate designs: three featuring traditional Japanese patterns and three with a contemporary feel. Choose the one that draws your eye, then consider how its existing lines might become part of a new design. Your piece begins to take shape through these choices, even before you pick up a brush.

Gold, Blue, or Both: Make It Your Own

In traditional kintsugi, the lines where a ceramic piece has been repaired are brought into view rather than hidden. As you look at your chosen plate, imagine how these lines might become part of its new design.

Aotsugi brings blue to these repaired lines. The technique was developed by Kenyu Mitsuhashi, who supervises this experience. Born into a family of Buddhist sculptors with a lineage spanning some 800 years, Mitsuhashi continues the tradition of Kamakura-bori woodcarving. Alongside crafting Buddhist altar implements and tea ceremony utensils, he pursues his own artistic expression.

Mitsuhashi’s affinity for blue dates back to childhood memories of diving into the sea and looking up at the light filtering through the water. Years later, surrounded by blue light at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, those memories returned, inspiring him to explore the color in his work. He incorporates synthetic pigments into his Kamakura-bori pieces, using contemporary materials to express his own sense of beauty.

For Mitsuhashi, blue connects the present with the future, a quality that led him to use it in aotsugi. His approach to tradition follows a similar principle: carrying forward what he has inherited while interpreting it through a contemporary sensibility.

Choose a gold-colored finish or explore a range of blue shades. You can also combine gold and blue on the same plate, considering how each color changes its appearance. With guidance from your instructor, your design gradually takes shape. Sessions are usually led by one of Mitsuhashi’s disciples, with the option to have Mitsuhashi himself lead the workshop for an additional fee.

New Possibilities through Modern Kintsugi

Traditional kintsugi uses natural lacquer and involves repeated stages of application and drying, a process that can take months to complete. This workshop uses a modern, lacquer-free technique, allowing you to finish your piece and take it home the same day. Brass powder creates the gold-colored finish, while blue pigment offers another way to give the plate a new expression.

With your instructor’s guidance, carefully join the broken pieces of your plate and work along the repaired seams. As you apply your chosen finish, the lines begin to emerge against the ceramic. Watch how the gold-colored powder catches the light or how blue lends the plate a different character. Each careful movement brings your piece closer to the appearance you imagined when you first chose it.

Beyond the repaired seams, you can add lines of your own, using the plate as a canvas. Consider how the colors and lines complement its original design, and let your own sense of beauty guide your choices.

Finally, gently refine the finished lines with cotton wool. You can pack your piece and take it home that day, with the memory of having made it by hand. An additional plate is available for an extra fee, allowing you to try a gold-colored finish on one plate and blue on the other.

Giving a Plate New Purpose and Making It Your Own

The plates prepared for this experience are pieces that have not found their place through the usual channels of distribution. Take another look at the one you chose at the beginning: the lines that once marked its damage now form part of its new appearance, brought to life through the colors and finish you selected.

No two finished pieces will be quite alike. Through the choices you made and the care you put into the process, the plate has become a piece of your own creation, ready to take home as a reminder of your time in Tokyo and enjoy for years to come.