Vintage Noritake Morimura Nippon hand painted porcelain vase circa 1930-1940. Representing a fishing scene on the river with gold details.

The vase is 17 cm high and 9.5 cm large.

In 1889, Morimura visited the Exposition Universelle in Paris. There, he encountered the brilliance of French porcelain, which inspired him to create similar wares for the U.S. market. After studying manufacturing, he opened a factory in Japan called Nippon Toki Kaisha Ltd. in 1904. This allowed the brothers to control the quality and designs, ensuring their aesthetic aligned with American buyers’ tastes. In 1914, they created their first Western-style dinner set, named Sedan, to compete with European porcelain.

It didn’t take long for the Morimura Brothers to pique Western interest. Each piece was hand-painted to ensure the highest quality. These early, hand-painted patterns were produced in smaller quantities and therefore are among some of the rarest collected today. In the 20th century, political and economic conditions restricted production and changed the direction of the company on more than one occasion. But the adoption of mass-marketing techniques and demand from global consumers allowed Noritake to continue their success.

Although consumers referred to the dinnerware as “Noritake” as early as the 1920s, the company didn’t officially assume the name Noritake Co., Limited until 1981. The company was restricted from using it as a trade name, stating in their own marketing materials that “Because Noritake is the name of a place, that word could not be officially registered as a trade name. However, because of the consistently high quality and reliability of our products, we were finally given permission to register the name.” Today, they still produce dinnerware that is new, contemporary in design, and consistently in demand.