Noritake Garden

Noritake Garden is the campus of Japan's most famous porcelain manufacturer, opened to the public in 2001 on a 4.5-hectare site centred around the company's original 1904 brick factory buildings. The complex contains a working ceramics workshop where you can see Noritake plates being thrown, painted and fired by hand; a museum tracing the company's history; a gallery of contemporary studio pottery; and the kilns and brick chimneys of the original Meiji-era factory.

The garden between the buildings is a pleasant lawn and pond combination with a craft shop and cafe selling factory seconds at substantial discount. Entry to the grounds is free; the museum and workshop are paid. Best combined with the nearby Toyota Industry Museum, a 10-minute walk south.

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A story
Noritake Co. began life in 1904 as Nippon Toki Gomei Kaisha, founded by Ichizaemon Morimura Sr. with the explicit goal of producing Japan's first Western-style bone china for export. The company's original 1904 office building still stands in the garden today, repurposed as a small museum tracing the origins of Japanese mass-market porcelain through the postwar boom.

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