Kameda Distillery Visit, Part 1: Yoichi, Niigata Barley and a Seal Maker’s Leap into Japanese Whisky (Niigata, Japan)

2026.10.05

The day a Hiroshima bartender was left speechless by a “beautiful whisky”: the glass of new make that sent me to Kameda Distillery

From Hiroshima to Niigata.

To cross a distance like that, with no obvious connection, you need some kind of “incident.”

For me, it was a startling encounter at a whisky event.

With craft distilleries popping up all over Japan, to be honest, Kameda Distillery had not been on my radar at all.

But one sip left me speechless.

“What is this beautifully clean whisky…!”

Hiroshima has its own pride, Sakurao, but here in Niigata a whisky had been perfected in a completely different direction. I couldn’t sit still and looked it up online right away!

And it turned out the person who had poured it right in front of me was the president himself.

That made things easy!!!

The website said they did not accept distillery tours, but I asked him directly!

Despite my forwardness, he kindly agreed, and so I was able to visit.

The Super Nikka at Yoichi Distillery that captivated President Douta at 20, and the warm hospitality of the woman at the shop counter

Kameda Distillery stands in an industrial area not far from Niigata Station.

What President Douta told me there was a story so pure, and a little unexpected.

His love of whisky goes back to his student days, when he was 20.

Invited by a teacher, he visited Nikka’s Yoichi Distillery in Hokkaido.

As a student, he went back again and again, paying the round-trip fare each time.

Back then the tasting corner had no time limit, so he enjoyed Super Nikka and more from the morning. In the paid corner, the lady at the shop would say, “Here’s a little of the good stuff,” and pour him some.

That warm experience made him fall in love with Yoichi, and with whisky.

So why did he become someone who makes whisky? It began with one “fateful remark.”

“Then why not make it yourself?” A love of Taketsuru 17 Year Old and his wife’s words set Ohtani, a seal-making company, on a new challenge

The president once worked as an MR (medical representative) at a pharmaceutical company. He felt sad as his beloved Taketsuru 17 Year Old won international awards and became harder and harder to find.

When he lamented to his wife that Japanese whisky was going out of reach, her reply was refreshingly simple: “Then why not make it yourself?”

The family business is Ohtani, a long-established seal (hanko) maker.

It seemed a world away from whisky making, but encouraged by his wife’s words, he toured small distilleries around the country.

There he became convinced, “At this scale, maybe I could do it too,” and began writing a business plan.

Bringing a Niigata “local drink” pride to whisky: in-house malting with local barley, and the precise science of a former MR

Niigata is known as rice country.

But what the president cared about was expressing whisky as a true local drink of Niigata.

The symbol of that is Niigata-grown barley, a variety he named himself.

By negotiating directly with Niigata farmers and buying above market price, he brought a new wind to farming that had been all about rice.

“I was told not to try to have everything in place from day one.”

Even so, he installed in-house malting equipment, all to make the most of this local barley.

This courageous decision was the secret behind the soft, clean new make that had surprised me at the event.

To me, who had come all the way from Hiroshima, the president smiled and said:

“Because we’re not that big, I’m happy if people who share our feelings drink it.”

In a place that had not even been on my radar, one man’s passion, his wife’s bold words and local barley were coming together to create something extraordinary.

But behind this clean taste lay a precise, scientific approach only a former MR could bring, and a commitment to wooden washbacks.

Continue to Part 2: wooden washbacks, trial and error, and a tropical new make

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Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

[A note from Tanimoto] This article about Kameda Distillery is based on my own visit, but it also includes some of my personal thoughts and interpretations. Please enjoy it as the musings of one whisky lover.

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