Masataka Taketsuru

A monument to Masataka Takesuru

Masataka Taketsuru (竹鶴 政孝, Taketsuru Masataka^?, 1894–1979) founded Japan's whisky industry. He was born in 1894 in Takehara, Hiroshima to a family that had owned a sake brewery since 1733.

Experiences in Scotland

In 1919 he took summer classes in organic chemistry at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He studied under Thomas Stewart Patterson, the Gardiner Chair of Chemistry.

He also worked at a number of Scottish distilleries. In 1920, he married Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan of Middlecroft, Kirkintilloch, despite opposition from both their families. Initially, they lived in Campbeltown and Taketsuru worked at Hazelburn distillery before moving to Japan later in 1920 via New York and Seattle.^[1]

Return to Japan

After returning to Japan, Taketsuru worked at Kotobukiya, where he helped to establish a whisky distillery. Kotobukiya was owned by Shinjiro Torii, a wine producer, and eventually became part of Suntory.

In 1934, he founded his own distilling company, Dai Nippon Kaju K.K., in Yoichi on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō. He believed that this part of Japan was the most similar to Scotland. He later renamed the company Nikka. Nikka whisky was first sold in October 1940. Taketsuru's wife, Rita, died in January 1961, of liver disease. Taketsuru died in 1979. He is buried in Yoichi together with his wife.^[1]

See also

• Nikka Whisky Distilling

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Mitchell, Jon (28 November 2010), "The Rita Taketsuru Fan Club", The Japan Times: 9–10, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101128x1.html, retrieved 28 November 2010 

External links

• Nikka website
• Japanese Whisky History (1854-1918) - The Jurassic Period to 1980s
• Masataka Taketsuru's entry in the University of Glasgow matriculation book in 1919

Persondata
Name	Taketsuru, Masataka
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1894
Place of birth
Date of death	1979
Place of death