Kumamoto is best known to visitors for its hot spring towns, and of course its easily recognisable black bear mascot (whose name is actually Kumamon). There is also of course great cultural capital in Kumamoto Prefecture, such as the Kumamoto Castle, one of Japan's three great castles, yet belying this abundance of serenity and natural wonder is an intense revolution afoot - the south of Japan has steadily seen the rise of Japanese whisky distillers that have achieved impressive quality right out the gate as a result of the region's long history of producing Japan's national spirit Shochu.

Thus far much of that Shochu-informed whisky has come from the Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, and so it's unsurprising that it's since fanned out to neighbouring prefectures such as Kumamoto. Yet at the same time this shouldn't lead anyone to thinking that these emerging distilleries are simply falling in line and following suit. Each one of them in reality holds a unique story that is either informed by its founders' personal life journey (as is the case of Oita Prefecture's Kuju Distillery and Fukuoka Prefecture's Shindo Distillery) or in the case of Yamaga Distillery, a matter of paying homage to its local heritage.   

"Yoheho! Yoheho!"

sings a thousand women in white yukata, dancing gracefully with gold leaf adorned washi paper lanterns worn on their heads, as part of a beloved tradition called the One Thousand Lantern Dance which is performed during the Yamaga Lantern Festival (or Yamaga Toro Matsuri 山鹿吐露祭) held every year in mid-August in Kumamoto's Yamaga City. The lyrics come from a folk song titled Yoheho-bushi and can be translated as "Let's get drunk! Let's get drunk!", which is taken to invoke a sense of festive celebration as performers and attendees pay tribute to the Omiya Shrine, which is the very heart of the festival. During the event, the entire town is beautifully illuminated by lanterns which symbolise spiritual guidance and devotion, inspired by a local legend of a lost Emperor who was guided by the town's people who in faithfulness lit up the way through a dense fog with their torches.

And so it is from the Yamaga Lantern Festival that we start to unpack the work of Yamaga Distillery, Kumamoto's first whisky distiller.

Yamaga Distillery is the work of MCA Holdings, which might on the surface sound nondescript, yet it is in fact the alcohol producing unit spun out (in 2006) of the Minami-Kyushu Coca-Cola Bottling Company (which was one of 17 appointed Coca-Cola bottlers in Japan, and today has been consolidated into just one Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc). As such, MCA has long had ties and a deep company background where it comes to producing a range of beverages, with its affiliates having produced wines as well as being the first in Japan to offer barrel-aged barley Shochu (both barrel-aged alcoholic beverages, which further pointed MCA in the direction of making its own whisky). Yet that's not all, MCA also counts a very prominent relative in the form of Mars Whisky, one of Japan's pioneering Japanese whisky producers best known for its Komagatake and Tsunuki whiskies, stemming from its President, Mr Masafumi Hombo, who is of course part of the Hombo family that owns Mars.

"We were captivated by the Yamaga Lantern Dance, a traditional performing art representing Kyushu. The Yamaga Lanterns, a traditional craft that is crafted one by one with exquisite delicacy yet powerful craftsmanship, and the graceful figures of the dancers dancing magically in the light of their lights. We found the ideal form of whisky in the beauty of both stillness and movement of the Yamaga Lantern Dance. It was at this moment that our concept of a whiskey with a gentle, clean flavor and a powerful aging that develops over time was born.

A light, feminine whiskey with a gorgeous, gentle sweetness."

With its pristine groundwater and history of producing Shochu and Sakes, it ultimately came time for Kumamoto to have its own whisky, and thus in 2021, MCA would decide to turn its Shochu distillery into one that would now focus on producing whisky, thereby naming it the Yamaga Distillery with the goal of embodying its local heritage. In conceptualising the distillery and what its whisky would be, the team concluded that it would aim to produce a whisky that was "light and feminine, yet with a strong, central aroma and flavour", which they believed characterised the elegance of the dancers of the local traditional Yamaga Lantern Dance. And at the same time the distillery was cognizant of playing to its strengths and natural advantages, which it identified as being its hot and humid climate with big temperature swings, as well as its abundance of high quality natural water, both of which Yamaga has incorporated into its whiskymaking as we'll soon see. Yamaga Distillery's logo is naturally taken from the characteristic Yamaga Lantern (although offhand it looks rather similar to that of a turtle, which too is a great omen in Asian cultures).

In retrofitting its distillery, Yamaga would unsurprisingly turn to Mars Whisky for its expertise, and as such it is said that even beyond the technical support where it comes to whiskymaking, much of Yamaga Distillery's equipment and even distillery design is said to heavily resemble that of Mars' Shinshu and Tsunuki distilleries. And then where it came to its set-up, the distillery would decide on stainless steel fermentation tanks where the fermentation could be better controlled, and also custom-made Miyake copper pot stills, one with a bulb-shaped bulge with an upward pointing lyne arm (designed to maximise copper contact to remove impurities) and the other a straight head ascending lyne arm spirit still, both indirectly heated, along with shell and tube condensers, so as to produce a light and clean style of whisky. The distillery would also conclude that what was essential was to achieve a clear yet flavour complex wash (called moromi), for which Yamaga uses an ale yeast (typically used in beer brewing) and a distiller's yeast (for the peated whisky, only distiller's yeast is used) which produces layers of flavours in the wash.

At Yamaga Distillery, it all starts with the deep groundwater that is pumped from 100 meters below the distillery, which comes from two wells that are supplied by the Kikuchi River and the Kunimiyama water system. The water here is a soft water that is also used locally as tap water. In the distillery, everything from milling to distillation takes place in one shared area, where imported UK barley (primarily non-peated) is mashed with the groundwater and then fermented in the stainless steel washbacks for 96 hours, with fermentation very closely monitored. Once distilled, the spirit is then filled at 60% ABV into primarily ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry (both seasoned and ex-Bodega as per Japanese whisky expert Stefan van Eycken), where casks are then left to age in the distillery's warehouse with no temperature or humidity control, so as to fully reflect the humid, 45-degree temperature swings of the Yamaga climate. The Yamaga Distillery team has made emphasis that as it is still learning and understanding about its whiskymaking in Kumamoto, there is a great desire to experiment with the process as well as with various cask types to understand how its spirit develops. By 2025, the distillery has stated that it has filled over 2,400 casks.

"These delicate crafts, made only from washi paper and glue, are all handcrafted by artisans known as lantern makers. Sparing no effort and putting their heart and soul into each creation - this approach is in line with our whisky-making, which pursues a diverse range of flavors using only malt, water, and yeast as ingredients."

Whilst the distillery compound is fairly compact, it is one of the rare few craft distillers that keeps the distillery open for visitors, and even has a dedicated lounge that is a combination of traditional British antiques and local Yamaga motifs - in some ways indicating the sensibilities of the distillery.

In later 2025, Yamaga Distillery has debut its first single malt, Yamaga The First Single Malt Japanese Whisky. The whisky is said to be elegant, fruity and creamy, and is bottled at 3 years old, with whiskies from the 2021/2022 vintage. Much attention was paid by the distillery to its packaging, where Yamaga has once again sought to integrate vintage British aesthetics with local symbols, in particular the Yamaga lantern that's stamped on the bottle's glassware, and the name "Yamaga" also stamped in calligraphy at the base of the bottle.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot