ABOUT KINTSU

HOW DID WE COME UP WITH THE NAME KINTSU?

When Dr. Shay decided to open her own clinic in the East Bay, she got together with a few friends, including her mother, to brainstorm ideas on what to name the new company. What followed was an exciting conversation about the concept of beauty, age, respect and jars. Well, vessels, to be precise. In his famous poem, “Ode to a Grecian Urn” John Keats ended with the famous line: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty..”

A reflection on the universal truth of timeless beauty, and how an ancient article could tell this story for thousands of years. But is that what human beauty is, or should be? Should we place so much weight upon a single concept? We all agreed that human beauty did not equal physical perfection. Flawless faces could certainly be marred by ugly personalities, and vice versa. And what about the modern obsession with youth? Should old visages be disposed of, or honored like the timeless history etched upon that classic urn? This brought us to the concept of Kintsugi! The ancient Japanese art of repairing broken and fractured objects, often bowls, with seams of gold. The philosophy of this practice, however, goes beyond the physical. It refers to a deeper healing. A symbolic metaphor that speaks to our spiritual resilience, and the beauty of the truth of the human experience.

As Ernest Hemingway once wrote: “The world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places.”

The gold seams of these broken vessels do, indeed, add strength. It is with that sense of strength and resilience that we offer Kintsu to you, as a beautiful vessel to hold you through the process of your personal journey in beauty.