Over the years, Keio Plaza Hotel's Arita Porcelain events have been a tradition and symbol of the summer season at our hotel. Every year many of our guests have enjoyed a beautiful variety of porcelain artworks displayed in the lobby together with Imari Okawachiyama's porcelain wind chimes whose sound gives the impression of a gentle cool breeze on a summer's day. Its beginnings date back to 1981, the year of Keio Plaza Hotel's 10th anniversary.
The very first event “Oarita Plaza City”, was a culture-oriented event that looked at the Japanese ceramic art culture, as well as ways of incorporating its usage in daily life. It was an unprecedented event which not only had the exhibition and sales of Arita pottery, but experts were also invited to a cultural forum, causing a major sensation at the time. In spite of the changes to the event name through time, the “Arita & Imari Porcelain Summer Festival” has been a popular summer event every year, with its 39th event held in 2019.
The charm of holding the event at a hotel is that it allows guests to get close to the beautiful museum-grade works of art such as Ko-Imari (Old Imari), Living National Treasure masterpieces and valuable personal collections. Amongst all the events held over the years, the 2016 event co-sponsored by Saga prefecture celebrating the 400th year anniversary since the founding of Arita porcelain created a wide-spread excitement. Furthermore, Keio Plaza Hotel takes it one step further to convey the beauty of Arita porcelain by beautifully marrying food and Arita porcelain tableware, which changes each year with tableware unique to each of our restaurants. Also, our friendship with Living National Treasure Inoue Manji, other representative potters of Arita, including the local potters is also an irreplaceable treasure to the hotel.
This event is a wonderful collaboration between Keio Plaza Hotel's approach to the charm of Arita porcelain from different perspectives together with the ingenious creativity of the Arita porcelain artists. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Keio Plaza Hotel's opening, we would like to continue to take on the role of sharing the beauty of traditional Japanese culture that can only be achieved by a hotel.
①②Shibata's Collection Exhibition, Ko-imari (old-Imari) porcelain became popular art items amongst European aristocrats during the 17th century
③Special Exhhibition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Japan's long tradition of porcelain art in 2015
④Special coordinated table settings using porcelain dishes and Sale of Porcelain Made by Renowned Porcelain Makers