The Story Behind the KOMORO ORIGIN Bottle Design｜Komoro Distillery Designer Mr. Nishio and the Three Founders

2026.11.10

“Wait — the designer is a man?!”

On November 8, 2026, I attended a master class by master blender Ian Chang, held to celebrate the first release from Komoro Distillery.

While talking about the bottle design, Ian pointed to a man taking photos in the room.

That man turned out to be Mr. Nishio, the designer of the KOMORO ORIGIN bottle!

A label inspired by kimono, and delicate purple flowers.

I had simply assumed the bottle was the work of a female designer.

What’s more, this is not an off-the-shelf bottle: the glass itself was newly designed from scratch.

I had once watched a YouTube video where they talked about the kimono motif and the importance they place on sincerity, and I had always wondered how involved Ian himself was in the design.

So I asked during the Q&A at the master class.

According to Ian, the bottle shape, the label and the box were all developed through discussions within the company.

And it was Mr. Nishio who gave form to the management team’s vision, right down to how the bottle looks and feels in the hand.

Then he added, “For the details, please ask him yourself.”

As it happens, I had already asked Mr. Nishio for an interview during the break (laughs).

And so I was able to hear about the design of the KOMORO ORIGIN bottle directly from him.

What I learned was a story that runs even deeper than the meaning of the design.

What the three founders wished for, how Mr. Nishio took in those wishes, and how he shaped them over about two years.

I was able to hear all about what went on behind the scenes.

The Three Rings Hidden in the Base of the Bottle

The first thing Ian introduced at the master class was the shape of the bottle itself.

Look at the bottle from below and you will find the Komoro Distillery logo.

It is made of three overlapping rings.

The indents on the side of the bottle represent those three rings twisting as they rise upward.

The three rings carry many meanings.

• The three founders: President Shimaoka, Yoshie Shimaoka and Ian
• Meeting at the right time, in the right place, with the right people
• Water, malted barley and yeast, the ingredients of whisky
• Taiwan, Japan, and Scotland, which influenced Ian
• The three O’s in the spelling of KOMORO

So many meanings packed into a single logo!

Ian laughed and said, “I could go on and on.”

The indents on the side are also designed to make the bottle easy for bartenders to hold and pour.

In that explanation, Ian also spoke about his attention to detail.

“God is in the details, and the devil hides in the details.”

Those were the words.

The beauty of its look, the feel in your hand, the people who will actually use it. All of it is built into the details of this bottle.

But the story that followed was even more fascinating.

It Started as a Much Simpler Bottle

Mr. Nishio is the in-house designer at Komoro Distillery.

He began working on the KOMORO ORIGIN bottle shortly after joining the company.

It took him a full two years or so to complete.

His previous job had nothing to do with whisky, so he started by learning about whisky itself.

When he researched whisky bottles from around the world, he noticed that many of them have relatively simple designs.

So at first, he began by thinking of a simple shape for the Komoro bottle as well.

But as he listened to the three founders, the things they wanted to express kept growing.

He would hear what each of them envisioned, and then propose a design.

They would talk again, and new ideas would emerge.

That back-and-forth was repeated many times.

The colors were decided in the same way.

He asked the three founders again and again what image each of them had in mind, and what color they would choose to express it.

At this point, one thing caught my attention.

If the design took about two years, the whisky itself must have been maturing all that time.

Was the design based on the finished whisky, or did it begin before the flavor was decided?

According to Mr. Nishio, it started when they decided to create a product called ORIGIN.

As production went on and the spirit continued to mature, the picture of how it would taste gradually came into view.

Each time, he listened to the makers and revised the design.

Isn’t that fascinating!!!

Rather than designing a bottle to fit a finished whisky, the design grew alongside the whisky as it matured.

And reaching the current kimono-inspired design also took quite a long time.

A bottle that started out simple, changing little by little through conversation after conversation.

Over the years, I have created many designs for Little Happiness together with creators.

They take in feelings I can’t fully put into words, and give them a form beyond what I had imagined.

Each time, I feel how precious the work of giving shape to feelings is.

Listening to his story, what came back to me was the time when Lito was born.

Lito is a little spirit born together with Little Happiness’s 20th anniversary bottle, as the guardian of Bar Little Happiness.

Exchanging ideas with the creator, putting meaning into every single part.

“Please make this part like this.”

“Please express this feeling.”

Every time I sent feedback, the faces of people I had met over 20 years and so many memories flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern, and I couldn’t stop crying.

There is the side that conveys the feelings, and the side that receives them and gives them shape.

For two years, Mr. Nishio stayed with the three founders’ feelings as the one receiving them.

I wrote about the feelings I put into Lito’s design in this article.

Sakurao Single Cask｜A First for the Distillery, and How Lito Was Born

To give shape to what he heard from the three founders, Mr. Nishio also did a great deal of research and thinking on his own.

One result of that was the kimono.

Why Kimono for the Label?

The label of KOMORO ORIGIN features a design inspired by kimono.

What the management team asked Mr. Nishio for was a sense of Japan.

They never specifically asked him to use kimono.

What Mr. Nishio focused on was the meaning held in kimono patterns.

The patterns and colors of kimono have carried the background of their times and people’s wishes.

Mr. Nishio told me that in hard times, when there was not enough food and life was difficult, bright colors and gorgeous patterns were sometimes used.

I found this fascinating.

Kimono patterns express the feelings and wishes of the people living in their era.

Because times are hard, people wish for a bright future.

Perhaps such wishes were entrusted to the colors and patterns of kimono.

And there Mr. Nishio found something in common with whisky making.

Whisky matures and changes over a long period of time.

Longer maturation does not always make it better.

There is much that even the makers cannot fully control.

Even so, they keep adding time, wishing for the whisky to grow into something better.

The wishes held in kimono, and the wishes entrusted to maturation.

Those two overlapped.

I see!!!

The meaning held in kimono connected with the feelings behind whisky making.

That idea is also expressed in the shape of the label.

The label that wraps around the bottle is inspired by a kimono obi sash.

The triangular part represents the overlapping folds of a kimono.

The shape of the label was also designed to harmonize beautifully with the form of the three rings twisting upward from the base of the bottle.

It is clear that kimono was an answer reached after much careful thought.

How to express a sense of Japan.

How to layer wishes for whisky making onto it.

And how to harmonize it all with the shape of the bottle.

It is a design born from thinking it through again and again, through trial and error.

The Komoro Mr. Nishio Walked on His Own Feet

The small purple flowers drawn on the bottle and the box.

They are based on the Komoro violet (Komoro sumire).

Making whisky in the land of Komoro.

The three founders treasure this deeply.

They want to create something good together with the local community.

That is why they asked for the design to include something of Komoro.

But it took quite a long time before the Komoro violet found its way into the design.

Mr. Nishio usually works at the Tokyo office.

He visits Komoro Distillery for work, but one day he came to Komoro on a day off, with no work planned.

He walked around the town, visited the local history museum, and researched the history and culture of Komoro.

On his day off, on his own feet.

Some things you can’t understand just by looking at documents and photos; you feel them by actually visiting a place.

That is how Mr. Nishio came to know Komoro while shaping the design.

And the Komoro violet held one more important meaning.

The Komoro Violet and the Words Ian Holds Dear

The flower language of the Komoro violet is “sincerity” and “humility.”

According to Mr. Nishio, Ian always tells the staff, especially those in production, to value these two things.

In whisky making, a single mistake can turn it into something completely different.

That is why Ian conveys these two words with such care.

Through many discussions with the management team, Mr. Nishio came to understand Ian’s way of thinking.

And he realized that the flower language of the Komoro violet matched the values Ian holds dear.

Hearing this, I remembered the Komoro Whisky Festival where I first saw Ian.

Though a world-renowned blender, he showed the same respect to the distillers beside him and to the audience.

At that moment, I felt that whisky made by someone with such a wonderful attitude would surely be harmonious and beautiful.

Later, when he came to Hiroshima and I spoke with him in person, I was strongly drawn to how naturally his aspirations and actions were aligned.

This time, hearing from Mr. Nishio about the flower language of “sincerity” and “humility,” I felt that what I had sensed back then connected once again.

Sincerity and humility.

These are words Ian passes on to his staff, and to me, they also seem to describe Ian himself.

A flower that symbolizes the land of Komoro, carrying such feelings as well.

How wonderful is that!!!

What Grew from the Meeting of Three

Three lines are drawn on the label.

They express the meeting of the three founders.

And there are three flowers in bloom.

These three flowers also symbolize the founders.

Look closely, and you will see lines and small petals scattered around them.

According to Mr. Nishio, the lines around them are the staff members who joined later. He deliberately drew only three flowers in bloom, to show friends gathering around them.

Komoro Distillery began with the meeting of three people, and little by little, more companions joined.

That scene is drawn within a single label.

According to Mr. Nishio, the story of how the three met is shared within the company as an important story.

If the timing had been just a little different, Ian might have been making whisky somewhere else.

In fact, he had received offers from other places.

Many timings overlapped, and Ian and President Shimaoka met.

I remembered that at the master class, Ian named “meeting at the right time, in the right place, with the right people” as one of the meanings of the three rings.

I believe the three of them were meant to meet, not by chance, but by destiny.

And from that meeting, Komoro Distillery was born.

I wanted to know a little more about how the three of them met.

The Three Founders and Their Feelings

President Shimaoka, Yoshie Shimaoka and Ian.

According to Mr. Nishio, each of the three has clear feelings and things they want to achieve.

For President Shimaoka, I heard that his encounter with the Karuizawa Distillery was a major turning point.

He once drank whisky from the Karuizawa Distillery and was moved by how delicious it was.

But that distillery was closed.

A distillery with a long history that made wonderful whisky disappeared, and its whisky became impossible to obtain.

He felt this was a great pity.

Was there any way to preserve it?

And if that was difficult, could he make it himself?

With that thought, he began learning about whisky, which eventually led to meeting Ian.

To make something that can be passed down across generations.

I was able to hear about these feelings of President Shimaoka from Mr. Nishio.

Ian, meanwhile, is the man who made world-acclaimed whisky at Kavalan in Taiwan.

And now he is taking on a new challenge in the land of Komoro, Japan.

And what about Yoshie Shimaoka?

At first, I thought her role was to bring together the visions of two people with clear ambitions, President Shimaoka and Ian, and turn them into reality.

According to Mr. Nishio, Yoshie is the person who has turned the two men’s visions into practical form.

And in fact, she herself has things she wants to achieve and ideas of her own, which she has brought into concrete form.

So that’s how it was!!!

I had only understood half of it.

Yoshie has been one of the founders, with her own vision, from the very beginning.

Hearing that, I remembered a scene from the last day of my stay.

Yoshie greeted guests at the station early in the morning, and on the bus she introduced, one by one, the shops of Komoro we passed by.

Even after we arrived at the distillery, she spoke to each guest and kept looking after everyone.

So that guests would visit not only the distillery but the whole town of Komoro.

To me, that seemed to be the feeling behind her words.

A founder, standing herself on the front line with the guests.

I was deeply moved to see a leader take the lead herself.

The feeling Mr. Nishio told me about, “to cherish the land of Komoro and create something good together with the community,” I felt I saw it in Yoshie herself.

In fact, I had also been curious about why I first assumed this bottle was designed by a woman.

When I asked Mr. Nishio how this delicate, gentle design came about, he told me there had been a request to reflect in the design that one of the founders is a woman.

To include the elements of each of the three, one by one.

That idea was also part of the starting point.

And because all three have their own feelings and ideas, turning them into a single form requires a great deal of dialogue.

What I found interesting in Mr. Nishio’s story was that things move forward when abstract ideas are given concrete form.

They listen to what each person envisions, and the staff come up with concrete proposals.

Looking at what has taken shape, they talk again.

Little by little, what they are aiming for becomes clear.

This, too, overlapped with my own experience of working with creators.

Some things are hard to share as long as they stay in your head.

But when you see something that has taken shape, new ideas come up: “Yes, exactly like this!” “I’d like it a little more like this!”

The KOMORO ORIGIN bottle, too, was completed through many rounds of such dialogue.

And because he has kept listening to the feelings of the three, there is something Mr. Nishio senses.

Why Ian Makes Whisky in Japan

One thing I especially wanted to ask Mr. Nishio was what Ian wants to express.

From Mr. Nishio’s point of view, what does Ian value?

What feelings is he trying to put into the whisky and the design?

In our conversation, there were words that left a strong impression on me.

“I think he is thinking about what it means to do this in Japan.”

He could have kept making whisky in Taiwan, and there may have been a completely different path.

Even so, he chose Japan.

That is why, perhaps, it all began with asking, “What is a truly Japanese whisky?”

And perhaps he wants to convey that feeling not only through the whisky itself but in other forms too, if he can.

That is how Mr. Nishio feels.

Ian has a remarkable track record at Kavalan.

Even so, in Komoro he is learning, thinking and experimenting all over again.

At the master class, too, he explained how different the climate and maturation environment are between Taiwan and Komoro.

In Komoro, with its four seasons, he needed to learn a way of making whisky suited to this land, while drawing on his experience in Taiwan.

What Mr. Nishio feels, and Ian’s own words.

Hearing both, they seemed to me to be facing in the same direction.

What to create, as a Japanese whisky, in the land of Komoro.

The way he faces that question may show not only in his whisky making but also in the design of the bottle.

I have written in detail about the taste of KOMORO ORIGIN and the story from the start of Ian’s new challenge in Komoro to the first release in another article.

KOMORO ORIGIN: Tasting Notes and the Story Behind Komoro Distillery’s First Single Malt — Ian Chang’s Sleepless Nights

By learning the background of each design element, I feel I have gradually come to see what the three founders are aiming for, as well as Ian’s, and the work of Mr. Nishio, who gave it form.

Another Story Layered onto the Bottle

In the three rings rising from the base: the meeting of three people, and care for those who pour.

In the kimono: the wishes entrusted to maturation.

In the Komoro violet: love for this land, sincerity and humility.

In the three flowers and lines: the founders’ meeting, and the companions who joined them.

And Mr. Nishio, who spent about two years giving shape to those feelings.

This time, I asked the people of Komoro Distillery to sign my bottle.

Ian and Mr. Shibuya, who came all the way to Hiroshima.

Mr. Fujiwara, the bartender.

Mr. Ogasawara and Eddie, who taught me so much.

And Mr. Nishio, who designed this beautiful bottle.

I was also able to get signatures from President Shimaoka and Yoshie Shimaoka, whom I had never spoken with before.

Before I knew it, the bottle was covered in signatures! (laughs)

KOMORO ORIGIN began with the meeting of three founders and was born from the feelings of so many people.

Next, I would like to enjoy this special bottle with our guests at Little Happiness.

I’m sure it will taste even better than usual!

Mr. Nishio, thank you so much for sharing so many stories with me!

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Whisky and rum taste even better when you know the hearts of the people who make them.

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