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Why is it that we westerners have a fascination with all things Japanese? Mention Japanese whisky to anyone who has a passing interest in whisky and they will exclaim “Oh, they make great whisky”, which is true to a point, but the country is no different to any other country that makes whisky, there is both good and not so good whisky made there, but it is the mystery, mystique and general belief that the Japanese make things better, which fuels this school of thought.
The myth that has grown up around the country centres on the notion that Japanese entrepreneurs, scholars and engineers would travel to Europe in order to learn about things such as ship building, railway engineering, medicine and car building, then take that knowledge back to Japan and by refining and adding that certain ‘attention to detail’ to these area’s they would then craft electronic, ships and cars that were often years ahead of what was being made in Europe. And whisky was no different.
In 1918, brewing technology student Masataka Taketsuru travelled to Scotland in order to learn how to make whisky. First, he studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow before beginning an n apprenticeship at the Longmorn distillery in order to learn about the production of malt whisky and this was followed by learning the art of grain whisky production on the Coffey stills of James Calder, in Bo’ness. Finally, his apprenticeship at the Hazelburn distillery refined his malt whisky making skills and taught him the intricacies of whisky blending.
Taketsuru’ s travels to Scotland were funded by a company called Settsu Shuzo, a prominent Osaka sake brewer, whose plan was for Taketsuru to set up their distilling arm when he returned from his studies in 1920, but the post WWI recession put paid to those plans. Instead Taketsuru found employment with Kotobukiya Limited (later to become Suntory) who were also looking into whisky production and in 1923 he oversaw the building of the Yamazaki Distillery.
When his 10 year contract with Kotobukiya Limited came to an end, he decided to venture out on his own and constructed a distillery in the town of Yoichi, situated in the Hokkaido prefecture. He apparently chose this location because it allegedly reminded him of Scotland. The area certainly features a cool, maritime climate with an abundant supply of the raw materials for whisky production. Interestingly he opted to use direct coal-fired pot stills, similar to those at the Longmorn. These stills by and large have been replaced in many Scottish distilleries with steam heated stills as this old fashioned form of distilling is both labour intensive and requires highly skilled operatives to maintain the correct temperature of the fire and regularly shovel coal into the furnace!
Production at Yoichi began in 1936 and four years later the first whisky was released under the brand name Nikka Whisky. Originally Taketsuru’s company was called Dai Nippon Kaju, which translates into ‘The Great Japanese Juice Company’ but by 1952 it had changed to The Nikka Distilling Company’. By 1954 the company had been purchased by the Asahi Group and added to its portfolio of food and alcohol brands. This influx of cash allowed Taketsuru to continue the expansion of his whisky production by overseeing the importing of the first Coffey stills from Scotland in November 1963 and their installation in Asahi brewery in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture. A second Coffey still followed in 1966 and by 1969 another malt distillery had been built in Miyagikyo, in the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi. Incidentally the two Coffey still were moved to the Miyagikyo distillery in 1999.
Nikka and Japan as a whole were not immune to the travails that befell the Scottish whisky industry in the mid 1980’s. Economuic stagnation coupled with a change in consumers tastes led to a number of distilleries, such as Hanyu, Karuizawa and Mars Shinshu closing. Nikka’s two distilleries managed to avoid that fate, but production was scaled back quite dramatically, which meant that this lack of aged stocks when the market revived led to the company withdrawing a number of it’s age statement releases and putting prices up dramatically to slow sales and allow the distilleries to replenish their stocks.
Although Masataka Taketsuru passed away in 1979, the legacy that the ‘Father of Japanese Whisky’ has left is carried on by the current Nikka master distiller Minoru Miake ashe continues to strive to create the perfect Japanese whisky.
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