Japanese Whiskey - A Modern History

The history of the Japanese whiskey market is somewhat mysterious before the early 1990s. Japan had isolated itself from trading with the western world save for a single Dutch trading outpost on a small island in the Nagasaki harbor.

This isolation would continue until one fateful day in 1853 when American Commodore Matthew Perry floated into Tokyo harbor with a group of four war ships, leaving behind textiles from the western markets as an enticement for Japan to join the growing global trade.

One of the textiles he left behind? A massive 110 gallon barrel of whiskey for the Japanese to enjoy.

Japanese authorities began trading for whiskey as they relaxed the strict measures they'd had in place for ages. Though, the trade of whiskey required a rather lengthy travel across land and perilous seas before it could be sold to the Japanese making it expensive.

It was considered a commodity until 1918, when a Japanese chemist by the name of Masataka Taketsuru moved to Scotland to attend the University of Glasgow.

Taketsuru was studying chemistry to learn the art of grain distillation in an effort to bring it back to his homeland.

After graduation, he interned at a handful of distilleries across the Scottish countryside and took volumes upon volumes of notes to bring back with him to Japan.

The Start of Something Big

When Taketsuru returned to Japan, he partnered with a pharmaceutical wholesaler by the name of Shinjiro Torri, who had always dreamed of starting his own distillery.

Torri had experimented with distillation before, using his knowledge of distillation to create oils and medicines. However, he lacked the practical knowledge to develop his own whiskey.

Torri had started a distillery in 1899 called Kotobukiya, which was later renamed Suntory Distillery. He had been producing fortified wines until 1923 when Taketsuru came onboard.

They formed a new distillery specifically for whiskey called Yamazaki. Unfortunately, the first release of Suntory Shirofuda (meaning "white label") wasn't met with the same enthusiasm.

After going back to the drawing board, they created a second release with scaled back malt flavor that took the market by storm.

New Horizons

After his 10 year contract with Kotobukiya, Taketsuru decided to go independent.

He traveled north, settling in Yoichi, Hokkaido. In 1934, he built his own distillery.

The distillery first produced apple products under the name "Dai Nippon Kaiju" meaning "The Great Japanese Juice Company" as Taketsuru prepared his operation to begin distilling whiskey.

In 1936, Taketsuru commissioned and received Japan's first pot still and distillation began.

It was in 1940 that Taketsuru's first whiskey was produced, NIKKA WHISKY (which was short for Nippon Kaiju).

It was then that Japan began to develop its own variety of national whiskey product, and the history of Japanese whiskey began to spread.