In 1918, Masataka Taketsuru, born in Takehara, embarked alone on a long journey to Scotland. This young Japanese man wanted to meet the whiskey manufacturing secrets, and there he found his great love, Rita. The Masataka family already owned in Japan, a manufacturer of "sake" (Japanese traditional drink made from fermented rice) since 1733, however, was the Scotch whiskey that always captivated him. When he had the chance to go to Scotland, Masataka enrolled at the University of Glasgow and became the first Japanese to study the art of making whiskey. He made chemistry courses at the university and apprenticed at distilleries, learning from the craftsmen and "master blend" that produced the most famous whiskeys of the time. Masataka later also become a known "master blend". In 1920 Masataka and Rita returned to Japan with the desire to produce a genuine whiskey, which was the first whiskey produced in Japanese land. Due to its experience in Scotland, Masataka knew the right environment was essential. Thus, in 1934 it built its first distillery in Yoichi, a place that considered the ideal in Japan to manufacture whiskey, since in many aspects found Yoichi similar to the Scottish town where he had studied. So they created the Nikka Whisky. In the following decades, his company studied and developed the first Japanese whiskey, and how was relentlessly passionate about quality, never allowed it to be sacrificed in favor of quantity. This quality made the Nikka whiskey flourish and grow to the present day, becoming world famous.