Kyushu Ceramic Museum is the right first stop in Arita. Its collections explain how local porcelain began, how Arita ware moved from regional craft to export art, and how the styles changed from early blue-and-white pieces to richer old Imari and later modern work.
The museum is especially useful if you plan to shop afterward. Once you have seen the historic forms and glazes, the town's galleries and kiln shops stop looking like a blur of pretty plates and start to tell a clearer story.