Kintsugi
金継ぎ

"Golden Joinery." The Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold.

The Metaphor for Founders

In the West, when something breaks, we hide the glue. We try to make it look "good as new." We pretend the break never happened.

Founders do this too. We hide our failures. We spin our pivots. We pretend the layoffs didn't hurt.

Kintsugi offers a different philosophy. It treats the breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. The break doesn't ruin the object; the gold repair makes it more valuable.

Why We Use This in Mikage

Your "Breakthroughs" shelf in the library is highlighted in gold (Kinpun). Because your wisdom usually comes from the moments where you broke.

  • ✦The failed product launch taught you customer empathy.
  • ✦The co-founder breakup taught you about values alignment.
  • ✦The burnout taught you sustainable pacing.

We don't fix you. We help you see the gold in the cracks.