Masataka Taketsuru

{{Infobox person

| name = Masataka Taketsuru

| image = Masataka and Rita Taketsuru.jpg

| caption = Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Rita

| nationality = Japanese

| birth_name = 竹鶴政孝
たけつるまさたか

| birth_date = 20 June 1894

| birth_place = Takehara, Hiroshima, Empire of Japan

| death_place = Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1979|08|29|1894|06|20|df=yes}}

| alma_mater = University of Glasgow
Osaka University

| known_for = Founder of Nikka Whisky

| spouse = Rita Taketsuru
(1920.01.08－1961.01.17, her death)

}}

{{nihongo|Masataka Taketsuru|竹鶴政孝|Taketsuru Masataka|1894–1979}} was a Japanese chemist and businessman. He is known as the founder of Japan's whisky industry and Nikka Whisky Distilling.

Born to a family that had owned a sake brewery since 1733, he traveled to Scotland in 1918 to study organic chemistry and distilling. He then returned to Japan establishing a whisky distillery at Suntory and founded his own distilling company, Nikka Whisky, in 1934.

Early life

File:Taketsuru house Takehara.jpg, Hiroshima]]

Masataka Taketsuru was born on June 20, 1894, in Takehara, Hiroshima, to a family that had owned a sake brewery since 1733.

Experiences in Scotland

In December 1918, he arrived in Scotland and enrolled at the University of Glasgow, where he studied organic chemistry in the summer of 1919.{{Cite web |title=Biography of Masataka Taketsuru |url=http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH24560&type=P |access-date=2016-03-19 |website=www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk}} Taketsuru studied under Thomas Stewart Patterson, the Gardiner Chair of Chemistry.

In April 1919, Taketsuru began his apprenticeship at Longmorn distillery in Strathspey, Scotland, and then in July at James Calder & Co.'s Bo'ness distillery in the Lowlands region.{{Cite web |title=The Founder {{!}} NIKKA WHISKY |url=http://www.nikka.com/eng/founder/ |access-date=2016-03-19 |website=www.nikka.com}} On 8 January 1920, he married Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan of Middlecroft, Kirkintilloch, despite opposition from both their families. Initially, they lived in Campbeltown and his last apprenticeship began in May 1920 at Hazelburn distillery (purchased in 1920 by Mackie & Co., then owners of Springbank) before moving to Japan later in November 1920 via New York and Seattle.

Return to Japan

File:Taketsuru Masataka bust.JPG, Hokkaido]]

After returning to Japan, Taketsuru worked at Kotobukiya, which would later become Suntory, where he helped establish a whisky distillery just outside of Kyoto. In 1934 he founded his own distilling company, Dai Nippon Kaju K.K., in Yoichi on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. 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.{{Cite web |last=Mitchell |first=Jon |date=28 November 2010 |title=The Rita Taketsuru Fan Club |url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101128x1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204073711/http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101128x1.html |archive-date=2010-12-04 |pages=9–10 |newspaper=The Japan Times |accessdate=28 November 2010}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20091113032027/http://nonjatta.blogspot.com/2007/05/history-1854-1919-jurassic-period.html Japanese Whisky History (1854-1918) - The Jurassic Period to 1980s]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050322162652/http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/about/dunaskin/oct2002/matric.html Masataka Taketsuru's entry in the University of Glasgow matriculation book in 1919]
[http://www.nikka.com/eng/ Nikka website]

Category:1894 births

Category:1979 deaths

Category:20th-century Japanese businesspeople

Category:Japanese whisky

Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow

Category:Osaka University alumni

Category:People from Hiroshima Prefecture

Category:Whisky blenders