I have consistently used the eternity of Urushi (Japanese lacquer) to express and preserve memory, a substance that is inherently ambiguous and fleeting. For this collection, I drew inspiration from Kintsugi, the Japanese repair technique that has become internationally renowned.

Urushi has been beside us since the earliest days of human life in Japan, serving not merely as a decorative coating, but also fulfilling the practical role of bonding broken objects. Kintsugi, which aesthetically elevates this mending role, is not a repair intended to erase the fact of breakage. Rather, it possesses a unique aesthetic that highlights the history of damage, ensuring the memory is never forgotten and healing the form. This spirit is a crucial value inherited in Japan, and I believe it offers a strong, positive message for our time—a power to transform "irreversible negative events" into a "force for overcoming" in a world constantly inundated with news of destruction.

The title, "Lightning," is inspired by the moment I was repairing a broken vessel with Kintsugi and felt the pattern of the cracks resembled a flash of lightning streaking across the sky. While destruction occurs in an instant, like a lightning strike, the Kintsugi technique requires an immense, disproportionate amount of time for repair, permanently enshrining the trace of that persistent care in the memory of the object.

This work of contemporary jewelry will challenge the wearer with the contrast between "instant destruction" and "eternal repair."