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 Super is a blend launched in 1962 by Nikka. At the time, it was their most expensive whisky, with each bottle blown by mouth and only a thousand produced every year. Masataka Taketsuru, whose wife Rita had passed away the previous year, put all of his energy into producing this blend. It contained whisky from Yoichi and a grain whisky. The recipe probably changed after Miyagikyo opened in 1969.