Though we may keep quiet about it, especially when young, we tend deep down to be hopeful that we will eventually manage to find perfection in a number of areas—an ideally harmonious relationship, deeply fulfilling work, a happy family life, and the respect of others.

In Zen aesthetics, broken pieces of an accidentally smashed pot should be carefully picked up, reassembled, and then glued together with lacquer inflected with expensive gold powder, with no attempt to disguise the damage; instead, the fault lines should be rendered beautiful and strong.

Life has a habit of dealing us a range of blows and leaving nothing much of this array of fine dreams save some shattered and worthless fragments.

At moments of disillusion, we might turn our minds to a concept drawn from Japanese Philosophy, particularly from the Zen Buddhist approach to ceramics.

Over the centuries, Zen masters developed an argument that pots, cups, and bowls that had become damaged shouldn't simply be neglected or thrown away, but should continue to attract respect and attention and be repaired with enormous care.

The word Kintsugi is derived from Japanese: 'Kin' meaning 'Golden' and 'Tsugi' meaning 'joinery,' literally translating to 'join with gold.'

The precious veins of gold in Kintsugi are there to emphasize that breaks have a philosophical merit all of their own.

The origins of Kintsugi are set to the Muromachi Period, when the shogun of Japan, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, broke his favourite tea bowl and, distraught, sent it to be repaired in China.

When Ashikaga Yoshimitsu received the repaired bowl from China, he was horrified by the ugly metal staples that had been used to join the broken pieces, so he charged his craftsmen with devising a more appropriate solution.

Japanese craftsmen developed a method of repair that didn't disguise the damage but made something properly artful out of it, which became the Kintsugi technique.

Kintsugi belongs to the Zen ideals of 'Wabi Sabi,' which cherishes what is simple, unpretentious, and aged, especially if it has a rustic or weathered quality.

Sen No Rikyu was one of the great proponents of Wabi Sabi philosophy.

On a journey through southern Japan, Sen No Rikyu was invited to a dinner where the host thought he would be impressed by an elaborate and expensive antique tea jar that he had bought from China, but Rikyu instead spent his time chatting and admiring a branch swaying in the breeze outside.

In despair at Rikyu's lack of interest in his expensive antique tea jar, the host smashed the jar to pieces and retired to his room.

Other guests more wisely gathered the fragments of the smashed tea jar and stuck them together through Kintsugi, and when Rikyu next came to visit, he turned to the repaired jar and with a knowing smile exclaimed, 'Now, it's magnificent.'

In an age that worships youth, perfection, and the new, Kintsugi retains a particular wisdom as applicable to our own lives as it is to pots.

Care and love expended on the shattered pieces should encourage us to respect what is damaged and scarred, vulnerable and imperfect, starting with ourselves and those around us.

The Zen ceramic repair process symbolizes a reconciliation with the flaws and accidents of time, intended to reinforce underlying themes in Zen philosophy about accepting impermanence and imperfection.