Skirakawa Distillery

Shirakawa distillery opened in 1939 following the opening of the Yamazaki distillery 16 years earlier. Distillation continued right through to 1969 when the company stopped producing single malt whisky, favouring the home-grown spirit Shochu as a product instead. The distillery finally closed its doors in 2003, sadly demolished just as the Japanese whisky market begun to boom. The majority of the whisky produced between 1951 and 1969 was used in Takara Shuzo’s flagship ‘King’ blended whisky, however evidence of single malt production was found in the company archives. Following extensive research, the final remaining parcel of single malt whisky was identified in 2019 and the distillation date was confirmed to be 1958.