Pottery is amazingly strong, yet vulnerable to breakage.
Japanese artists invented a distinctive way of mending ceramics. They drew on the ancient tradition of using the plant resin lacquer as a glue to rejoin broken ceramics but transformed the appearance of the repair by sprinkling the lacquer with powdered gold, thus creating a new component for appreciation.
Gold lacquer repairs (Jap. Kintsugi) became closely associated with ceramic utensils used in the way of tea (Chado).

In their exhibition BachmannEckenstein present a variety of ceramics from Japan, Korea, and China mended and enhanced by this characteristic Japanese technique.

Reference: Flickwerk. The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics, Exhibition Catalogue, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and Museum für Lackkunst, 2008