Arita Porcelain Park

 

Arita Porcelain Park is a small theme park in the hills outside the small town of Arita in Saga with a theme of porcelain and Germany. This connection came about because Arita twinned with Dresden because Dresden had one of the best collections of Arita porcelain anywhere in the world.

When I visited 10 years ago it was already starting to feel dilapidated and as I understand it the last ten years have only added to its decline.

They do have a big example of a climbing kiln, called noborigama, and when I was there they were in the middle of a firing, so that was cool to see.

One of the few remaining activities at the park are classes in making and decorating ceramics with the pieces you create being sent on to you after firing.

The highlight of the park is the impressive replica of the Zwinger, a Baroque palace from the early 18th Century, built by King Augustus who collected East Asian porcelain. The Zwinger replica used to show exhibits of European porcelain and Arita ceramics, but is now closed.

Besides a couple of souvenir shops and a restaurant the park unusually has a large, modern drugstore specializing in tax-free products for the busloads of primarily Asian tourists. At the entrance of the park is a new, modern brewery making sake and shochu. They bought the park in 2015 and tours are popular.

Built just after the "bubble" burst, it is like hundreds of other dilapidated monuments around Japan to an overly optimistic expectation of tourist numbers that never came close to being realized and I suspect it will not be long till its doors close for good.. If you are in the area it is maybe worth a visit for some "Instagram" shots of the Zwinger, which was the subject of the previous post in this series on day 70 of my walk around Kyushu.

Zwinger Palace at Arita Porcelain Park

 

To come across a full-size replica of a Rococo German palace in the countryside of Saga in northern Kyushu might surprise some people, but such things no longer surprise me.

This replica of the Zwinger palace in Dresden is located in a theme park devoted to porcelain, the Arita Porcelain Park, and as well as the Zwinger palace the rest of the park is made out to represent a "german" village.

The connection of porcelain to Arita is a strong one...... Arita is where the first porcelain in Japan was made, but the connection to Germany needs some explanation.

A lot of the porcelain produced in Arita was exported to Europe by the Dutch traders of Nagasaki and was very popular and known as Imari Ware after the nearby port to Arita from where it was exported.

In the 1970's it was discovered that behind the Iron Curtain in the museum of Dresden was an amazing collection of Imari Ware, and with some difficulty it was arranged to bring the collection from East Germany to show in Japan. This led to Arita and Dresden becoming sister-cities.

The original Zwinger was built in 1709 as an orangerie and gardens with galleries and pavilions for exhibitions. It is considered a classic piece of Baroque architecture of Dresden. It was largely destroyed by the infamous bombing raid of WWII but was rebuilt.

The Arita version was opened in 1993, and like many such ambitious projects from around that time the park never really became very successful and so has somewhat deteriorated. The gardens are particularly bleak.

When I visited the two long galleries held exhibitions of European porcelain and local Arita ceramics, but it seems that these exhibitions have now ceased. I suspect the whole park will not be a viable business for much longer, again a fairly common occurrence in the hinterlands of Japan.

I visited on day 70 of my walk around  Kyushu, a day I spent mostly exploring Arita, a town well worth a visit. Next, I will look at the rest of the porcelain park.