Nikka's founder Masataka Taketsuru is considered the father of Japanese whisky. After completing studies in chemistry, he was recruited by the Settsu Shuzo company, who sent him to Scotland in 1918 to complete his apprenticeship. There he developed a passion for whisky and decided to dedicate his life to it. In 1934, he built Yoichi, his first distillery, on the island of Hokkaido. Its growing success enabled him to establish a second distillery in 1969, near Sendai, named Miyagikyo. It is from the single malts of these two distilleries that the Nikka Whisky group produces its entire range of Japanese whiskies.

Nikka Black was created in 1965 and quickly became a classic for the brand. It features grain whisky from the Nishinomiya distillery built by Nikka a year earlier. This is an 8 year old whose label depicts the “King of Blenders”, William Phaup Lowrie, a key figure in Scottish whisky in the second half of the 19th century who is thought to be one of the first people to make their own blends.