How I Use the Japanese Art of Kintsugi in the Practice of Medicine
“NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER” cut through the air of the oncology consultation room, with the staccato triplet setting my eardrums vibrating and freezing my face and body in space. I have often thought about race and have heard such racial epithets on several occasions. But I think the boxer Mike Tyson had it right: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
“People were asking me [before a fight], ‘What’s going to happen?’ They were talking about his style. He’s going to give you a lot of lateral movement. He’s going to move; he’s going to dance. He’s going to do this, do that. I said, ‘Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.’”
You would be surprised at how kintsugi (golden joinery) informs my practice of oncology. Kintsugi is the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered silver, gold, or platinum.
I love the concept of treating breakage and repair as an intrinsic part of the history of an object. The artisan does not disguise the repair, but rather the fix is a highlight. Lacquerware is a practice with a long history in Japan and at some point may have been combined with maki-e as a replacement for alternative approaches to ceramic repair.
