Study kintsugi where it was born.
The Kintsugi Path culminates in an optional seven-day residency in Kyoto, Japan — the home of kintsugi. Where the online path teaches the mindset, the residency lets you sit with the craft itself, in the places where it is still practised, beside a working kintsugi artisan.
The path before the residency
The foundational companioning path — presence, reflective listening, and the kintsugi mindset. Learn to sit beside grief without fixing it, sustain yourself, and hold space with trauma-aware care. The five online modules — Entry through Certify — build the mindset and the practice of presence. The Japan residency is the embodied capstone: what you studied in words, you now hold in your hands.
Credential
Everlight Kintsugi Guide
16 hrs online · + 7-day residency
Optional, not required. The residency is an optional capstone, not a requirement for the Everlight Kintsugi Guide credential. It is offered in small cohorts of 8–12, guided by an Everlight companion, and carries a separate programme fee (travel and accommodation additional).
Seven days in the place of kintsugi
- Day 1
Arrival · The break as story
Cohort gathers in Kyoto. An evening of framing: we begin with the kintsugi mindset taught online, and prepare to meet the craft in person. No mending yet — only arrival.
- Day 2–3
Dojo visit · Watching the master
Two mornings in a working kintsugi studio in Kyoto. You watch a master mend a broken tea bowl with urushi lacquer and gold — slowly, in silence — and begin to see how the craft holds everything the path has taught.
- Day 4
Temple context · Impermanence
A guided contemplative visit to a temple garden. We sit with the aesthetic of impermanence — wabi-sabi, mono no aware — that underpins kintsugi, and hold space for the grief the craft speaks to.
- Day 5–6
Practicum · Mending your own piece
Under the artisan's guidance, you mend a piece of your own — bringing an object that represents a break in your life, and joining its seam with gold. This is the embodied practicum: the mindset made material.
- Day 7
Capstone rite · Carrying, not closing
A closing circle. Each companion presents their mended piece and the reflection it carries, witnessed by the cohort. The residency closes — not the grief, but the gathering. You carry the practice home.
What you'll practise in Japan
Embodied kintsugi practice
Mend a real piece with gold under an artisan's hand. The online practicum becomes a thing you can hold.
Supervised reflective listening
Hold a short companioning conversation within the cohort, witnessed and gently reviewed against the kintsugi competency rubric.
Capstone reflection & rite
Present your mended piece and its story to the cohort. Recorded as a PracticumLogEntry by your Everlight guide.
Practical details
Help a companion reach Japan.
The Japan residency is the heart of the Kintsugi Path — but the cost of travel is out of reach for some grief companions. Your contribution to the Kintsugi Residency Scholarship helps a companion who cannot afford the trip take their place in Kyoto.
Can't afford the residency? Apply for support.
If the Japan residency is calling but the cost is beyond your means, you can apply to the Kintsugi Residency Scholarship. Tell us your story — we hold every application with care.
Begin the path that leads to Japan.
Enrol in the Kintsugi Path to start the five online modules. The Japan residency opens to companions who complete kin-5.
Explore the certification ladder