About
Located near Akashi in Hyogo Prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea. Named after the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge. Expansion of the Akashi Sake Brewery (est. 1856, spirits since 1917). Whisky production since May 2017. Produces Hatozaki Whisky (named after Japan's oldest stone lighthouse, in operation since 1620). Sister distillery of Torabhaig in Scotland. Uses American oak, mizunara, and sakura cherry wood casks. Maritime winds provide ideal ageing conditions.
Production Details
The Kaikyo Tale
Where the Seto Inland Sea meets the ancient city of Akashi, salt winds carry stories across waters that have witnessed centuries of passage. Here, beneath the shadow of the great Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge—that engineering marvel spanning the straits—stands a distillery that takes its name from these very waters. Kaikyo, meaning "strait," bridges worlds just as surely as the steel cables above.
The distillery rises from ground already steeped in the alchemy of fermentation. Since 1856, the Yonezawa family's Akashi Sake Brewery has transformed rice into liquid poetry, their craft deepening in 1917 when they began distilling spirits. But it was Kimio Yonezawa who, in May 2017, lit the first fires beneath copper stills dedicated to whisky, adding another chapter to six generations of patient craftsmanship.
The local Akashi water flows through these halls as it has for over a century and a half, carrying the mineral memory of Hyogo's hills. This is the same water that once filled the vats where sake began its quiet transformation, now serving a different but equally reverent purpose. Each drop carries the weight of monozukuri—that peculiarly Japanese devotion to making things with soul.
Inside the stillhouse, maritime winds from the Seto Inland Sea slip through every corner, their salt-touched breath creating conditions that no inland distillery could replicate. These are the same winds that once guided ships past Hatozaki lighthouse, that stone sentinel standing watch since 1620, whose name now graces the whisky that sleeps in American oak, mizunara, and sakura cherry casks.
The distillery's character reflects its dual heritage—Scottish tradition filtered through Japanese sensibility, much like the connection to sister distillery Torabhaig across distant Scottish seas. Here, precision meets patience, innovation honors tradition, and every decision serves the whisky's long journey toward harmony.
The strait continues its eternal flow, the bridge spans its ancient crossing, and in the warehouses, whisky ages under the watchful presence of winds that have shaped this coast for millennia. Time moves differently here, measured not in years but in the slow alchemy of wood, spirit, and sea air.