Learn Kintsugi (Japanese gold-repair) in Kanazawa

Honest level: Beginner to intermediate — ask the school exactly how far that goes in the time you have.

Schools in Kanazawa

Checked by hand against each school's own course pages. No school paid to be listed.

• Urushitoki Sadaike lacquerware workshop
  Traditional all-natural urushi kintsugi experience
  Urushitoki Sadaike is a four-generation Kanazawa lacquerware workshop, founded 1940, that manages its own urushi trees and since 2023 runs kintsugi sessions teaching the traditional natural-lacquer repair method directly from working artisans.
  https://wabunka-lux.jp/experiences/en_urushitoki-kintsugi/
• Kanazawa city-of-crafts urushi studios
  Traditional urushi kintsugi workshops
  Kanazawa, a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts, hosts numerous urushi studios offering hands-on natural-lacquer kintsugi workshops with local artisans; most are single-session experiences rather than a single multi-day residential program.
  https://www.deeperjapan.com/kanazawa

The credential

Recognition by a master urushi artisan / completed traditional urushi-kintsugi apprenticeship · Certifying body: Traditional urushi-shi (lacquer master) apprenticeship lineage; no single national grading body

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Kintsugi (Japanese gold-repair)

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.