Noritake is a ceramic company in Japan. It’s known for selling fancy western-style tableware, and it has many fans. Throughout my life my mother has collected many kinds of Noritake tea cups, dishes, and cutlery. So it’s familiar western tableware to me.
Recently I visited the Noritake forest in Nagoya, where there are factories, museums, tableware shops, and restaurants. I learned how to make Noritake dishes and the company’s history. You can visit there without a reservation! Here is my summary of a few places:
1.Museum
Noritake was started in 1876 by Morimura brothers. They went to NY for business in the Meiji period. And in the beginning they started a Japanese antique shop with pottery, fans, and lanterns. Among them, it seemed that a ceramic product called fancy wear (including vases, decorative plates, decorative pots, etc) was popular in the US market.
This pottery was painted in Tokyo and made in Seto. I think the painting is really great; the artists used to paint Japanese style, and then they learned western style for their business. The collections are very nice, and I had wanted to see the one called “Old Noritake” for a long time. Old Noritake was made before the end of World War II. There are not many other Noritake collections, so please go to the museum, if you think you will like Noritake!
2.Shop
The shop was really fancy and fun because you can buy all of the dishes and cups! These were displayed beautifully, but I felt they were a little bit expensive in the shop. There was a sale section, but I didn’t find anything nice there 🙁 My mother used to go to factory sales in my city once a year for 10 years. And we went to Saga factory shop too! There were so many kinds of dishware, and everything was cheaper than in the shop! If you visit Kyushu someday, you should visit there too.
3.Restaurant
I was so hungry. First I went to the restaurant,but it was full during lunch time. If you want to have lunch on time, please reserve a table. At the restaurant all tableware is Noritake. You can see many kinds of dishes and, of course, the food is delicious!
