The effect on appetite of three Imari ware plates A, B and C with different respective proportions of blue to white of 20%, 40% and 60% was investigated. Three types of warm and cold meals were served on these plates and photographed. These pictures were simultaneously shown to three groups of participants and the effect on appetite was evaluated by scoring on a questionnaire. The results indicate that the mean appetite rating for plate B was the highest for all three meals, suggesting that a Sometsuke plate with an approximately 40% blue best matched the different Japanese foods. The mean appetite rating for cold meals served on plate A was higher than that for warm meals, whereas the rating for both meals was high when served on plate B, suggesting that cold meals matched a plate with a blue-proportion of 40% or less.