Yamazaki

Yamazaki distillery is a Japanese whisky distillery located in Shimamoto, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Opened in 1923, and owned by Suntory, it was Japan's first commercial whisky distillery. Seven thousand bottles of unblended malt whisky are on display in its "Whisky Library". The Yamazaki distillery was opened in 1923 by Shinjirō Torii as the first malt whisky distillery in Japan. The company founder and chairman of Kotobukiya (the predecessor company of Suntory) wanted to produce a serious whisky and therefore hired Taketsuru Masataka, whom he appointed factory director of the Yamazaki distillery in 1924. This descendant of a sake brewing family from the 17th century was in Scotland in 1918. He traveled to study at Glasgow University and learned how to make Scotch whisky on site. He married a Scottish girl, Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan († 1961), who went to Japan with him in 1920. Under Taketsuru (* 1894) the production of the first whisky was completed in 1929, which was sold as shirofuda (English white label). Due to differences with Torii, Taketsuru left the company in 1934 and founded the Dai-Nippon Kaju KK company , later called Nikka Whisky Distilling, in Hokkaidō in the same year.