There's something appealing about putting a broken thing back together. It offers a sense of restoring order to the world, or perhaps even affirming that damaged things are still worth saving. In Kintsukuroi, a free mobile game created by Chelsea Saunders, you piece together broken shards of ceramic objects to make them whole again, and perhaps soothe your own jangled nerves in the process.
Kintsukuroi (literally, "golden repair") is named after the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery using lacquer dusted with precious metals, turning the seams of the once-shattered object into lovely veins of gold or silver. The damage becomes part of the object's history—something that enriches it, rather than something that deprives it of value. Instead of simply discarding something because it has been broken, kintsukuroi suggests that it can become even more beautiful because of, and not despite being broken.
It's a nice metaphor, all around.
Saunders has an extensive post on her website about the development of the game, why she made it, and what she hopes people will get out of it:
Kintsukuroi’s main goal is to center someone who’s anxious—to provide them something to focus on in a calming environment while also giving them a sense of progression and accomplishment… As someone who regularly deals with anxiety I often find myself picturing returning to a calm state in stages, or waves, or pieces of something broken realigning.
If you'd like to try Kintsukuroi, it is currently available for free on Google Play.
