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I've been working on the incorporation of a community center LGBTQIA+ people and allies to hang out and feel safe.

I learned "kin tsugi" means golden joinery after I woke up with the memory of a door that had 金継ぎ in gold on it. I thought I should give it this name.

Does it sound natural if I used 金継ぎ as the name of a community center for LGBTQIA people? I was reading about kin tsugi, and thought that my life and that of my friends are much as these broken pots. We do not hide our scars but instead, we own them as a part of who and what we are.

Eiríkr Útlendi
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An Muir
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    What is a place-noun? – Earthliŋ Jul 01 '16 at 13:13
  • This 富士 is a place-noun. The name of a place. I found the kanji for the job of doing joinery but I want to know what a place that is, "A Joinery" or "The Joinery" would be? I want to name a place "The Gold Joinery" as in 金継. – An Muir Jul 01 '16 at 13:42
  • For "joinery" I would suggest 指物屋 (sashimono-ya). I'm not sure what to do with "gold" though. Do you mean like a joinery that works with gold inlay or something like that? Or maybe more like "golden"? – sazarando Jul 01 '16 at 13:55
  • For "joinery" I would suggest 指物屋 (sashimono-ya). I'm not sure what to do with "gold" though. Do you mean like a joinery that works with gold inlay or something like that? Or maybe more like "golden"? – sazarando Jul 01 '16 at 13:56
  • Kintsugi 金継ぎ means golden joinery i Japanese. I want to name place a Joinery as a play on words, a pun. The Golden Joinery, Understand? – An Muir Jul 01 '16 at 15:45
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    I'm still unsure, but your real question is this?: "Does it sound natural if I used 金継ぎ as the name of a community center for LGBTQIA people?" If not, could you specify? – naruto Jul 01 '16 at 17:05
  • hai, yes, would this? I was reading about kin tsugi, and thought that my life and that of my friends are much as these broken pots. We do not hide our scars but instead, we own them as a part of who and what we are. – An Muir Jul 01 '16 at 18:31

1 Answers1

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Native speaker here, but I'm not sure how I can help you...

  • The character 継 by itself does not mean "joinery" at least in Japanese. But this kanji does mean "to join" (as well as "to succeed/inherit") in certain compound words. (eg, 骨継ぎ is an uncommon word meaning "repairing bone fractures")
  • 継 is not a well-known place name like 富士 or 東京. Apparently there is a district name called 継（つぎ tsugi） in Hyogo prefecture, but this is recognized only by local people there.
  • You can name a fictional place in whatever way you like, but I doubt people can feel the meaning of "joinery" or any other job names, at least only by this character.
  • Yes there is a rare word 金継ぎ (きんつぎ kin-tsugi), the art of repairing broken china/pottery. Apparently, this has nothing to do with carpentry or wood crafting. I didn't know the meaning of 金継ぎ after living in Japan for more than 30 years. I'm not particularly good at traditional crafting, though.
  • If you mean this art of woodworking by "joinery", the corresponding Japanese word is 指物（さしもの sashi-mono), but it's a rare word, too.

If this still doesn't help you, please tell us in detail what you really need.

EDIT:

Now that I think I understand the intention of the OP, here are my thoughts.

  • If you are thinking of doing a wordplay on 金継(ぎ), please note that XYZ + 継 is not productive in Japanese any more, partly because 金継ぎ itself is a rare word. That is, you cannot combine some arbitrary noun with 継 and produce a new noun meaning "XYZ joinery", even though 継 itself sometimes means "to join." (If you did, however, some people might take it as "successor of XYZ" because of the primary meaning of 継)
  • To my Japanese ears, a community center named Kin-tsugi may be, for example, like a barbershop named Blacksmith. But you might not need to worry about this too much—your community doesn't seem to speak Japanese, after all :)
naruto
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  • naruto, Thank you very much for you patience and insight. I'm new to the community but I know there several Asian-American communities here. I've only met Japanese and Chinese though. During our last meeting members of the Japanese community, most from ASU said was they who feel dis-included, not the other way around. I feel that way myself so I understand. All Non-Whites experience that to some degree here. About the name, I just wished to avoid the blatant appropriation Japanese culture without respect. So came here inspired by dream to learn and to follow it's inspiration. – An Muir Jul 01 '16 at 21:44