They would have looked right at home at any of the 148 whisky distilleries currently operating in Scotland—six onion-shaped copper pot stills sat side by side in a warehouse, heated directly by blazing coal-fired furnaces underneath—were it not for one small detail. At the top of each still’s “swan neck”—where the alcohol vapours from the boiling mash within rise to condenseinto new-make whisky—were strung shimenawa: sacred straw ropes festooned with shide paper streamers more commonly found adorning Shinto shrines across Japan to ward off evil spirits.
Here, at Yoichi Distillery in Hokkaido—regarded as the birthplace of Nikka Whisky— these beatified stills represented something else: the continuation of the vision of Taketsuru Masataka, the godfather of Japanese whisky, in bringing something inherently Scottish and transforming it into something thoroughly Japanese. There are pioneers, and then there’s Taketsuru.
Born in Hiroshima in 1894 to a well-respected family of sake makers, he showed a natural affinity for chemistry early on, which would later morph into a fully-fledged fascination with Western liquor over sake—his parents were none too pleased.
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Taketsuru Masataka, the godfather of Japanese whisky
Archival bottles andsporting trophies in thedrawing room of Yoichi Distillery
Hired straight out of school to work at one of Japan’s earliest makers of Western-style spirits, the ambitious Taketsuru was personally tasked by the company president to sojourn directly to Scotland to learn all the intricacies of making malt whisky. And so, in 1918, he waved goodbye to the Port of Kobe from the deck of the Tenyomaru steamer, bound for an experience that would kickstart the creation of homegrown Japanese whisky.
In Scotland, Taketsuru enrolled at the University of Glasgow to study organic chemistry. It was also during this time that he extensively toured a constellation of whisky distilleries as an apprentice, from Glenlivet to Knockando and the now-defunct Campbeltown, and threw himself wholeheartedly into the whisky-making process, volunteering for duties that ranged from shovelling barley to cleaning the inside of the stills. It was at Campbeltown that his academic and practical experiences coalesced into a clear vision for Japanese whisky. “I was finally confident in my ability to make whisky, and began to see the path forward,” he wrote at the time.
Everything he witnessed, he would obsessively record by hand in descriptions and diagrams—his collection of notebooks, today known as the Taketsuru Notes, would go on to inform the building of Japan’s first whisky distillery for Kotobukiya (the predecessor to Suntory) upon his return in 1920. Armed with his hard-won knowledge and those meticulous notes, Taketsuru was determined to recreate the magic of Scottish whisky in his homeland.
Yoichi Distilleryin Hokkaido is the birthplace of Nikka Whisky; still number one at Yoichi; coal is still used to fire Yoichi’s stills to this day
After parting ways with Kotobukiya, Taketsuru scoured the length of Japan for the ideal environment to found his own whisky-making operation, finally settling on the northern island of Hokkaido. The coastal town of Yoichi, with its crisp sea air, abundant coal supplies and access to mineral-rich waters, was an uncanny reminder of the conditions in Campbeltown.
In 1934, Taketsuru’s vision was realised with the founding of Nikka Whisky and the construction of Yoichi Distillery. Every detail was built to his precise specifications based on his notebooks—from the coal-fired copper pot stills to the unique design of the mash tuns and washbacks. As the first drops of new-make spirit slowly trickled forth, Taketsuru knew he had achieved something special—a perfect synthesis of Scottish whisky tradition and Japanese terroir and craftsmanship.
It’s a cold, dreich day in the northern Aomori town of Hirosaki when Stanislav Vadrna regales me over lunch about his life-changing discovery of Taketsuru’s story. “All of a sudden, it just clicked for me like a bolt of lightning from the sky,” he says, breathlessly. The 48-year-old Slovakian mixologist and global hospitality advocate for Nikka cuts an imposing figure when I meet him for the first time in Tokyo’s acclaimed Bar Trench.
Coal is still used to fire Yoichi’s stills to this day
A state-of-the-art, Italian-made pot still at Nikka Whisky’s Hirosaki cideryis festooned withshimenawa
With his slicked-back hair, statuesque beard and white choker jacket, he has an uncanny resemblance to Rasputin—that is, if the 19th-century Russian mystic could bartend. In Hirosaki, where we’ve travelled to tour Nikka’s apple cider mill, he’s more of an itinerant rocker in his faded motorcycle jacket and low-slung skinny jeans—worlds and decades apart from Taketsuru, but, unmistakably, cut from the same pioneering cloth.
“Here was the first Japanese person to travel to Scotland to learn this strange, new way of making whisky, and I was one of the first Westerners who went to Japan to be properly trained by a Japanese bartender,” says Vadrna referring to his stint apprenticing under Kazuo Uyeda, the founder of famed Tokyo institution Tender Bar. “So at once I found this connection between his life story and my life story. I was even reading about how Masataka had a Scottish wife, Rita, and back then I was in love with a Japanese girl.”
Indeed, the myth of Jessie Roberta “Rita” Cowan looms large over Nikka’s origin story. Having made the acquaintance of her sister Ella, a fellow Glasgow university student, who invited him for tea with her family—including their medical doctor, Japanophile father— Taketsuru was immediately drawn to Rita. As they spent more time together, with Taketsuru frequently visiting the Cowan residence, a romance blossomed.
Nikka Whisky founder Taketsuru Masataka
Taketsuru with his Scottish wife, Rita Cowan
A pivotal moment came at Christmas when the pair received fortuitous charms in their Christmas pudding—a sixpence for Taketsuru and a thimble for Rita, signifying they were destined to marry. Though unspoken, their feelings grew stronger, ultimately solidifying during a trip with Rita’s sister Lucy, when Taketsuru proposed to Rita on the shores of Loch Lomond. In 1920, they married, with Rita becoming the first-ever Scottish “whisky bride” when she followed her new husband back to Japan.
Rita was a consummate homemaker, adapting quickly to the Japanese language and customs, and even learning how to cook Japanese home-style dishes. In their residence on the grounds of the Yoichi Distillery, a container holding umeboshi plums that she made some 90 years ago still sits in the kitchen for visitors to ogle. Taketsuru himself would later remark, “If not for Rita, I may have given up.”
Their tale was immortalised in 2014 when national TV broadcaster NHK debuted Massan, a fictionalised retelling of the romance between them, that ran for 150 episodes and inspired a nationwide craze for homegrown single malt whisky. “Imagine obaa-san [Grandma] watching Massan in the morning, but she has no whisky at home. So what does she do? She goes to the corner store and buys a single malt, and she’s drinking it neat or mixing it as a mizuwari,” says Vadrna gleefully, relishing in the thought of the nation’s centenarians downing glass after highball glass of whisky cut with water.
The Taketsuru Notes were foundational to the building of Yoichi Distillery
With Nikka due to celebrate its 90th anniversary this year, Taketsuru’s life still exerts considerable influence over the company he founded. “Everyone at Nikka respects our founder,” says the soft-spoken Masashi Watanuki, one of seven whisky blenders based at Nikka’s Kashiwa bottling plant. “His thoughts, philosophy and challenges have been passed on to everybody here; so when we think of doing something new and challenging, we will imagine how our founder would have done it. That is the benchmark.”
The company faces new challenges in upholding Taketsuru’s pioneering legacy amid a rapidly evolving Japanese whisky landscape. The long-awaited establishment of legal definitions and standards for Japanese whisky production that took effect in April 2024 has ushered in a new era of transparency and accountability for the industry. Even the country’s largest distillers haven’t been spared: under the tightened labelling requirements and demands of full traceability, world blends—whiskies which contain a blend of Japanese and imported whiskies—can no longer be labelled “Japanese whisky”, impacting products such as Nikka’s Tailored and Suntory’s Ao whiskies.
As the global thirst for Japanese whisky shows no signs of waning, Nikka must carefully chart a course that preserves Taketsuru’s innovative spirit while adapting to new realities. The stakes are high, but the foundation laid by the “godfather of Japanese whisky” and his Scottish bride Rita remains unshakable—a lasting testament to the power of passion, perseverance and cross-cultural harmony in the face of adversity.
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