• 1900 CAFÉ RICHE　A la carte menu
• Courtesy of Hiroomi Tatematsu

Shiseido had held the exhibition "Menus of French Cuisine" from Mr. Hiroomi Tatematsu's collection when The Ginza was opened in 1975. The exhibition ended with a success with a favorable reception at that time. In more than 30 years, we find a lot of authentic French restaurants now in Japan. Also, Michelin Guide Tokyo was published last year, and people's interest toward gourmet is greater than ever. This time, at Shiseido Gallery, "graf media gm", the creative unit from Osaka known as its unique style of activities, will produce the exhibition based on the menus from Mr. Tatematsu's collection. With the historic French menus, "graf media gm", and the selected artists will turn the gallery space into a banquet room.

Mr. Tatematsu collects menus from 1553 of royal and noble banquets from all over the world. In those menus, we can find beautiful designs, interesting cuisine, and musical programs to go with the meal. From the contents, we can read the heart of OMOTENASHI (hospitality) of hosts and hostesses in those times. Mr. Tatematu's collection includes the hand written menu of the banquet held by Napoleon III, beautifully decorated menu in the belle époque, the menu from the banquet held at the Palace of Versailles when King George VI of England was invited to France in 1938, and the menu of the reception held at the Elysee Palace when the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited France in 1994 as the guests of the nation. Many of them are from historically and diplomatically very important banquets.

As this year, we celebrate 150 year anniversary of French-Japanese relations, we selected the menus from 1858 and exhibit them in the small room of the gallery, ground floor of Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Building, and in Shiseido Parlour. In the larger room of the gallery, we exhibit the works of the artists which are originally made for this exhibition.