Nikka Whisky’s Yoichi Distillery, founded in 1934
Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, Nikka Whisky – and indeed the entire Japanese whisky category – owes its existence to one man: Masataka Taketsuru. The company’s founder was born in Takehara, Hiroshima, in 1894.
His family had owned a sake brewery since 1733 and he was destined to join the business before he encountered Western-style spirits, while studying fermentation techniques at Osaka Technical School. ‘I want to make this,’ his notes recorded. ‘Once I started thinking that way, I couldn’t resist temptation.’
Young Masataka Taketsuru
Landing a job with spirits producer Settsu Shuzo in Osaka, in 1918, the final year of the First World War, he was sent to Scotland to learn about Scotch whisky. Taketsuru was the first person from Japan ever to do this; at the time it was an arduous journey, taking over 50 days by ship and rail.
Chemistry courses at Glasgow University were followed by short apprenticeships with distilleries including Longmorn in Elgin, Bo’ness – where he learned to distil grain whisky in a Coffey still – and Hazelburn in Campbeltown. The result was a series of notebooks, hand-written and with meticulous diagrams. These ‘Taketsuru Notes’ became Japan’s first manual for whisky production.
Japan’s first whisky
In the wake of the economic turmoil that followed the First World War, Settsu Shuzo abandoned its plans to produce whisky. But Shinjiro Torii of Kotobukiya (later renamed Suntory) had similar designs. In 1923 he hired Taketsuru to oversee the building of Yamazaki Distillery on the outskirts of Kyoto. As distillery manager Taketsuru produced the first Japanese whisky – Suntory Shirofuda – in 1929.
Taketsuru had returned to Japan with more than his notebooks however… In Glasgow he fell in love with local lass Rita Cowan. ‘A lady was staring at me with round, beautiful eyes. That was Rita,’ he noted in his diary. Later confessing: ‘It was love at first sight.’ The pair married in Glasgow in 1920.
Masataka Taketsuru and Rita on their wedding day
Rita immediately immersed herself in Japanese culture, learning the language and also how to cook Japanese food. Importantly, she also supported Taketsuru in his dream of opening his own distillery, which happened in 1934. The couple had settled in Yoichi in Japan’s northern island, Hokkaido – chosen for its resemblance to Campbeltown, bordered by mountains and the sea.
Nikka is born
Initially making apple products as Dai Nippon Kaju – ‘Great Japanese Juice Company’ – Taketsuru was also busy designing the first pot still to be manufactured in Japan. It was installed at Yoichi Distillery in 1936 and Nikka Whisky was released in 1940. Nikka, short for Nippon Kaju, later became the company name.
Today Yoichi is distinctive for being one of the last distilleries in the world that still heats its stills with direct coal fire. This is said to impart a signature toastiness to the aromas of its malts. Yoichi was also selected as an ideal location because Taketsuru found peat nearby in the local Ishikari Plain. The company still owns a peat bog there, though these days malted, peated barley is imported from countries such as Australia and Germany to produce Nikka’s whiskies.
Coal-fired stills at Nikka Whisky’s Yoichi Distillery
Following its initial release of Nikka Whisky, the Yoichi Distillery launched Nikka Black in 1956. This was followed by Super Nikka in 1962, created as a tribute to Rita, who died in 1961.
Miyagiko Distillery
Pursuing his dreams of whisky-making alone – and inspired by the regional characters of Scotch – Taketsuru founded a second distillery, Miyagiko, near Sendai on Japan’s main Honshu island in 1969. The more southerly location lent itself to the production of lighter, more elegant whiskies to complement the bold Yoichi malts.
Coffey still at Miyagiko Distillery
Miyagiko became known for its two Coffey stills, originally…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/spirits/whisky/nikka-90-years-of-japanese-whisky-538871/
