page_title: Nikka Whisky Distilling
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Nikka Whisky Distilling / History
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 竹鶴政孝の胸像。ニッカウヰスキー北海道工場内。
context_page_description: The Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. Ltd. is a producer of Japanese whisky and other beverages headquartered in Tokyo. It is owned by Asahi Group Holdings.
  The company operates a number of distilleries and other facilities in Japan, including two Japanese whisky distilleries, the Yoichi distillery in Yoichi, Hokkaidō, and the Miyagikyo distillery in Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Northern Honshū. It also owns the Ben Nevis Distillery in Scotland.
context_section_description: The founder, Masataka Taketsuru, travelled to Scotland in 1918 to learn the process of distilling Scotch whisky first hand. He studied organic chemistry under Prof. T. S. Patterson at the University of Glasgow and malt whisky production at the Hazelburn distillery, in Campbeltown near the Mull of Kintyre. He married Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan, the daughter of a Glasgow doctor, and returned with her to Japan in 1920. In 1923 he joined Kotobukiya (currently Suntory) and helped to establish a distillery before starting Nikka in 1934.
  After their deaths, the company was run by their adoptive son, Takeshi Taketsuru, who expanded its business substantially.
caption: Monument to Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of Nikka Whisky
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