Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
Most people who drink Yamazaki think of it as an Osaka whisky — or, more precisely, a Kyoto-adjacent whisky, since the distillery sits on the border between the two prefectures in a valley where the rivers from Arashiyama meet. The water, the bamboo groves, the legendary tranquillity of the location: these are the elements that appear in Suntory’s story of Yamazaki’s origins.
What is less often told is the Hiroshima connection.
The Bamboo from Takehara
The bamboo that grows in the Yamazaki valley — the same bamboo that appears in the distillery’s imagery and that gives the location its particular microclimate — has historical ties to the city of Takehara in Hiroshima Prefecture. Takehara, the same town where Masataka Taketsuru was born, was historically one of Japan’s most significant bamboo-producing regions. The material that helped shape the Yamazaki environment has roots — literally — in Hiroshima.
This is not a tenuous connection. The relationship between the Yamazaki valley and the bamboo cultivation traditions of Hiroshima’s coastal towns is documented in the regional agricultural history of the Seto Inland Sea area.
What This Means for Hiroshima Whisky Drinkers
For someone based in Hiroshima, this history adds a layer to the experience of drinking Yamazaki. The founder of Nikka was born here. The bamboo that helped shape Japan’s most famous whisky distillery came from here. Sakurao makes whisky by the Seto Inland Sea here.
The amber in the glass is never as distant from this city as it seems.
Read the full Japanese column: little-happiness.jp/columns/yamazaki-hiroshima-history/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
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