Miyagikyo Distillery Report, Part 4: The Secret of the “Bulge” — Without It, Miyagikyo’s Floral Style Would Not Exist (Sendai, Japan)

2026.10.05

In short: the secret of the floral, fruity style of Nikka’s Miyagikyo Distillery in Sendai, Japan, is the “bulge” — the round swelling on its pot stills, where heavy compounds fall back and only refined vapours rise. Compared with Yoichi’s straight-head, coal-fired stills, Miyagikyo’s bulge-type stills are heated gently by steam: two sides of the same coin. Part 4 of my Miyagikyo report by Mika Tanimoto, owner of Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima.

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A column by Mika Tanimoto, Bar Little Happiness (Nagarekawa, Hiroshima)

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Inside the still house: copper glowing in the light

I opened the door of the still house.

Huge copper-coloured stills, lined up in perfect order.

To be honest, it was a hard space to photograph.

But when I looked up, their presence came rushing at me all at once.

Light streams in through windows in the ceiling and walls, and the copper slowly glows as it catches that light.

Precisely because you look up at them, you feel the size and beauty of these pot stills with your whole body.

That kind of space.

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Repaired, not replaced: “protect while moving forward”

Looking closely at the eight pot stills in a row, each one shone differently.

On several of them, the lowest part of the body was still dull copper, while only the bulge and neck above it gleamed like new gold.

The old and new parts are firmly joined by a flange (a metal ring at the seam) and stand together as one still.

Instead of rebuilding the whole thing, they repair only the worn parts and keep using it.

In that, I felt I saw Miyagikyo’s philosophy: “protect while moving forward.”

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The “bulge”: the magic device behind Miyagikyo’s floral aroma

The shape of these pot stills has great meaning.

Miyagikyo’s pot stills have a shape called the “bulge type.”

It is that part where the lower body swells out in a round bump.

There are pot stills of all shapes around the world, but compared with Yoichi’s, the difference is obvious at a glance.

Yoichi’s are the “straight-head type,” with a smooth, simple shape from top to bottom.

At Miyagikyo, on the other hand, that round swelling changes everything.

This “bulge” is a magic device.

The heated vapour circulates inside the bulge.

Heavy compounds that tend to become off-notes turn back here, and only the refined essence rises upward.

The result is Miyagikyo’s signature floral, delicate aroma, reminiscent of apples and pears.

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Coal fire at 1,000°C vs. steam at 130°C: two sides of the same coin

The way heat is applied is also the opposite of Yoichi.

Yoichi uses direct coal-fired distillation, boiling it up at once at a high 1,000°C.

That produces a powerful, smoky, heavy spirit.

Miyagikyo uses indirect steam heating.

At 130°C, it distils slowly and gently, as if talking to the spirit.

No hurrying. No rushing.

That “gentleness” creates its elegant aroma.

The shape of the pot stills, and the way heat is applied.

These two differences combine, so that Yoichi and Miyagikyo produce spirits with completely different personalities, like two sides of the same coin.

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When I pour Miyagikyo at the Little Happiness counter, there is that floral aroma that softly spreads above the glass.

So it was born from the curve of this bulge.

Thinking that, the whisky in front of me felt like a living thing with a will of its own.

Shape decides aroma. Design decides flavour.

Once again, I felt that whisky is the makers’ feelings given form.

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A shimenawa rope on a Western still

By the way, did you know that a shimenawa (a sacred Shinto rope) is tied around the neck of these pot stills?

Look at distilleries all over the world, and Nikka Whisky is the only one with shimenawa on its pot stills.

A Japanese prayer dwells in a Western still. Please let me write about this in detail another time.

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Next time: why were Yoichi and Miyagikyo designed to be “opposites”? Masataka Taketsuru’s grand plan!!

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*This article is based on what I saw and heard on my visit to Miyagikyo Distillery, what I already knew, and what I newly researched. It includes some of Mika Tanimoto’s personal views.

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

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