Fairy Tales Painted by Master Heinz Werner: The Porcelain Art of Modern Meissen

Preview: written before the show opened

When this touring show opened in Tokyo in 2025, Yomiuri's art desk reported that the yellow on the 1964 Münchausen coffee service is a colour Meissen can no longer make. That set, painted with the Baron's tall tales, is on the Hosomi's list for Kyoto, the last stop after Tokyo and Aichi.

Heinz Werner (1928 to 2019) was one of five artists who remade Meissen from 1960, in East Germany, where the state factory accepted only 20 of every 100 hand-painted pieces as finished. You start with an Edo-period Arita dish of the kind Meissen first copied, then move through his fairy-tale services: Arabian Nights, Summer Night (Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream on a tea set) and Blue Orchid, up to a 1998 coffee service. Most pieces are lent by private collectors.

Admission is ¥2,000, or ¥1,500 for students. The museum is open 10:00 to 17:00, closed Mondays and from 24 December to 5 January.