Haejin Shim Fujimura presents Pope Francis with a 15th century kintsugi bowl by on Nov. 8. (Courtesy of Haejin Shim Fujimura)
By Christopher White
Nov 22 2022
What began as a private message on Twitter resulted in a private meeting with Pope Francis.
It was seven years ago when Servant of God’s Love Sr. Dorcee Clarey reached out to the American artist Makoto Fujimura after being inspired by one of his paintings. Clarey and Fujimura, who has written extensively on the intersection of faith and art, soon became pen pals, with the artist treasuring the prayers of a religious sister living in Michigan whom he’d never met.
There was one form of art that Fujimura specialized in that Clarey found especially meaningful: kintsugi. The ancient Japanese tradition repairs broken vessels with gold — not hiding their past damage but incorporating it into the history of the piece, with the finest of treatments.
“Kintsugi does not just ‘fix’ or repair a broken vessel; rather, the technique makes the broken pottery even more beautiful than the original,” writes Fujimura in his 2020 book Art and Faith: A Theology of Making. “Christ came not to ‘fix’ us, not just to restore, but to make us a new creation.”
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