Nikka, Yoichi Single Malt WhiskyABOUT THE WHISKY In 1918, Masataka Taketsuru, the son of a sake brewing family, was sent to Scotland to study Scottish whisky. He returned to Japan at the end of 1920, with his Scottish wife, Rita, and was employed by the Kotobukiya Group (later renamed Suntory) to build the Yamazaki Distillery, the first whisky distillery in Japan. At the end of his contract Masataka left to found his own distillery in 1934 on the northern island of Hokkaido in the