How the Japanese See Beauty In Broken Pottery

On making scars visible and turning them into gold. 

"Someone just left a one-star review," our events coordinator emails me.

"Really? Which event would that be from?" I respond.

My company Breakthrough Sushi has 5-star ratings on both Yelp and Google. All the client feedback from our recent events has been positive. I couldn't think of any events, or any clients who expressed dissatisfaction with our services.

I look carefully at the email notice. It's from one of the platforms where we sell our sushi class tickets. The review says, "We arrived at the class location at a store inside the Ferry Building. The store clerk told us that the sushi class was canceled. We weren't notified. Waste of time."

Now I know why this ticket holder left a one-star review. We canceled and deleted this class listed on one site and informed the store that was hosting our sushi class. But we forgot to cancel the listing on the other website, which is where Akshay bought his pair of tickets for him and his girlfriend.

"What do you think we should do? No one has left a one-star review before," the events coordinator asks me.

It was an honest, simple mistake. The events coordinator forgot to cancel the listing. But if I put myself in Akshay's shoes, I would be upset too. I blocked out that day to prepare for the class. I took out the time to drive and arrive on time, only to find out no one was there to host the class. Then what would I do instead?

Even if we explain to Akshay that it was an honest mistake, for him, it doesn't matter at all. We would be explaining what happened. It will not heal his emotional scar.

But I know exactly what to do. I have experienced many similar situations like this, where a client was upset over a mistake we made.

"Let's email him and apologize first. Refund his money. Then invite him to one of the upcoming classes for free."

The events coordinator emails him. We don't hear back from Akshay for two weeks. During our weekly meeting, I remember this incident and ask,

"Have we heard back from Akshay?"

"No, not yet."

I feel the events coordinator is worried. But I am not. I put our best intention out. We made a mistake. We apologized. We'd like Akshay and his girlfriend to experience our sushi class. Our intention is sincere.

A month goes by and we finally hear back from Akshay.

"I just saw this email. Yes, we can attend the next sushi class."

When Akshay and his girlfriend arrive at the class, I greet them and apologize again.

"Thank you for coming back. I hope you enjoy the class," I say to them.

I lead our regular sushi class, making 4 different rolls including rainbow roll and spicy tuna hand roll. When Akshay and his girlfriend make their rainbow roll, I see their faces light up with big smiles. I take a picture and share it with our events coordinator.

"Look how much Akshay and his girlfriend are having fun," I write in the email. "I am glad we invited them to come back."

Later that week, I reflect back on what we did with Akshay. We broke his trust. And somehow, we put it back together. It reminded me of something I'd been meaning to write about.

The Art of Turning A Scar into Something Beauty

What would you do with a broken piece of pottery? If it's replaceable, you'd probably throw it away and buy a new one. But what if you can't replace it? Even if you glue the pieces together perfectly, the scars remain. You'd always see the cracks, always remember the mistake.

On Sunday morning as I was browsing through YouTube videos, I came across a short video of Trevor Noah's interview. In it, he was talking about how the art of kintsugi has changed how he views his life and himself.

First, kintsugi is a Japanese ceramic mending technique. It uses metals like gold, silver, and platinum to fix broken ceramic pieces like plates, cups, and pottery in combination with bonding material and lacquer ware.

The finished pieces will have visible lines laced in gold or silver color and are considered to have more value than before they were broken.

Trevor Noah's interview reminds me of the depth and beauty of the Japanese culture I grew up with yet, quite often, I forget living in a different country. For me, it is, strangely enough, an a-ha moment—how beautiful the kintsugi concept is, and Japan has a lot of those: wabi-sabi, ikigai, and kaizen.

All these are concepts that shift our perspective in life. Kintsugi is an art form and also a way to change our perspective in life, which Trevor shared in his interview.

Kaz Matsune - Culinary Storytelling & Mindfulness

When I started my sushi career some quarter century ago, I couldn't tell the difference between hamachi and tai. I did not know sushi did not originate in Japan. I thought fresh fish tastes better than five-day-old fish.

I didn't realize sushi is about subtraction, like many of the Japanese art forms like flower arrangement and tea ceremony. Cooking is always reverse engineering, or what I call thinking opposite, which I have been practicing unconsciously for the past 25 years.

Most people think mastery is about perfecting sushi techniques, but it’s the opposite: avoiding making the same mistakes that I made before, which leaves me with choices that will likely lead me to success.

This think opposite and subtraction concept is similar to the kintsugi concept, as Trevor Noah said. It's not that mistakes are bad or negative. But like kintsugi, it's important to make those mistakes visible. And our job is not to fix them perhaps, but to put those mistakes together and wear those mistakes on us like scars. But because of our effort and art, we make those scars more beautiful and give ourselves more beauty and value, like shining gold.

So, going back to Akshay's story. I don't know if I could erase that emotional scar from Akshay's heart. Maybe it is still there. But I am confident I was able to turn that negative experience into something fun and beautiful, like a craftsman fixes broken pottery using the kintsugi technique. What was broken is now laced with gold. What was a mistake is now a story. What wounded Akshay became the reason he smiled making that rainbow roll.

©2026 Kaz Matsune All Rights Reserved

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About Kaz Matsune

Kaz Matsune is a storyteller and speaker who uses food as a medium to share life lessons.

If you’d like to book Kaz Matsune to speak at your event, get in touch with the Speakers Collective via the contact form on our homepage or email info@speakerscollective.org.

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