Kintsugi with Mae Yoshikawa

Kintsugi means “golden journey.” It’s the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by binding the pieces back together with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. As a philosophy, it treats the breakage and repair of something as part of the history of an object, rather than something to be disguised, discarded and forgotten.

This is exactly what Mae Yoshikawa has courageously done with the pieces of her life’s story, time and time again. And what remains is the most exquisite work of art to behold.

We dive into a discussion of what feminine spirituality looks like. Just as her inspiration, the late guru Sri Anandamayi Ma, our guest today, Mae Yoshikawa, also embodies this eternal nature of divine joy.

One of the most pleasurable things about speaking with Mae, besides that ineffable joy mentioned above, is her acute insight into her own personality, and her own pain.

She speaks eloquently about how much she embraces the delicious rudeness of the American side of her personality when speaking English; which is quite different from the modest, proper clarity that comes from speaking Japanese. And, how now she seeks to integrate the two sides of herself into one professional person of the world.

Late in today’s episode, Mae speaks about her status as a widow and what that means for her as well (be sure to listen all the way… so not to miss both the beautiful and tragic events that broke her heart wide open).

Her ability to recognize her suffering and orchestrate her healing, and then to unfurl that joy in her and in all of us, is an absolute inspiration to us humans.

Mae is an author, yoga & meditation practitioner, teacher, and mother. In 2006, Mae became the first Japanese woman to be authorized by KPJAYI, the founding school of Ashtanga Yoga in India. Having graced 42 consecutive covers and penning a widely popular column for Japanese Yogini magazine from 2003~2013, Mae helped to spearhead a cultural shift in Japan—making sure that yoga would not be seen merely as physical exercise, but rather as a holistic practice and lifestyle that would restore health and balance to the busy lives of modern people. Currently, she is known as the face of adidas yoga as well as being the founder of vedatokyo.com, a premier online studio that offers yoga, zazen, and a variety of other wellness programs.

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The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider supporting our future episodes by making a donation. Your contributions have allowed us to keep our podcast ad and sponsor free.

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