Nikka Gold & Gold Samurai

Nikka is a Japanese producer of beverages. The company operates a number of distilleries and other facilities in Japan, including two Japanese whisky distilleries, the Yoichi distillery in Yoichi, Hokkaidō (established in 1934), and the Miyagikyo distillery in Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Northern Honshū (established in 1969). It also owns the Ben Nevis Distillery (acquired in 1989) in Scotland. The founder, Masataka Taketsuru, travelled to Scotland in 1918 to learn the process of distilling Scotch whisky first hand. He studied organic chemistry at the University of Glasgow and malt whisky production at the Hazelburn distillery in Campbeltown. He married Jessie Roberta 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 himself starting Nikka in 1934.