Makoto Fujimura: Mending to make new - the Japanese art of Kintsugi
Born in Boston, Makoto Fujimura or 'Mako' the name he goes by is an artist, arts advocate, writer, thinker and filmmaker. He studied 16th & 17th century Japanese art in Japan and practices the Japanese art of Nihonga or ‘slow art’. This beautiful ‘refractive’ art requires you to slow down in order to see what’s happening in the painting, sometimes 10-15mins at a time and then a whole world opens up - colours that you hadn’t seen before unless you slow down to look.
We talk about the work he does with the organisation he founded I am Culture Care, creating a space where culture isn’t fought over but rather nurtured like a garden. We talk about hearing the music in art, about art as sound. About finding genesis moments in art, creating out of darkness, out of suffering. We talk about creating communal tables that to quote Mako, ‘[e]nduring art cannot be created without a covenantal community’. We talk about the Japanese art of Kintsugi - the art of mending to make new, finding beauty in brokenness.
Guest: Makoto Fujimura
Title: Mending to make new - the Japanese art of Kintsugi
Websites: Makoto Fujimura, Fujimura Institute, I Am Culture Care
IG: @iamfujimura
Kintsugi IG: @academykintsugi/
Artist on playlist: Susie Ibarra
Collaborations: Quartets - artistic response to T.S. Elliot’s 4 Quartets
New York Times: Op ed piece
Writing: https://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/art-love-and-beauty-introduction
https://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/art-love-and-beauty-on-art-lecture-1