Address from Consul General Takaoka: Love & Whisky - The Story of Rita Cowan and Masataka Taketsuru

The Right Honorable Stuart Macdonald, Provost Alan Brown, Ladies and gentlemen, My name is Nozomu Takaoka, the Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh.
 

Thank you very much for inviting us to this historic Auld Kirk Museum to celebrate 100 years anniversary since Ms. Rita Cowan from Kirkintilloch married her husband, Mr. Masataka Taketsuru.
 

This couple, known as the 'Mother and Father of Japanese Whisky' is very famous in Japan, because their story was featured in the household name TV series of NHK, Japanese equivalent of BBC, viewed by tens of millions of Japanese viewers including me and my wife six years ago.
 

And I should inform you as well, that Rita is the only one non-Japanese person, featured as the main character of this famous TV series of NHK which has been aired from 8 am Monday to Friday for the past 60 years.
 

Actually, this is my third joyous occasion to attend the series of centennial anniversaries honouring this famous couple. First in last August, anniversary dinner at the Town Hall of Kirkintilloch, generously hosted by the owner of The Spirit of Alba, Mr. Jim Hopkin to celebrate their actual first meeting between Mr.Taketsuru and Miss Rita Cowan exactly 100 years ago.
 

The second event was held at the University of Glasgow in November to recognize the admission of Masataka Taketsuru to that university to study chemistry again 100 years ago. On that occasion, I actually noticed the evidence of intimacy between the couple because his registered address on the university’s admission record was that or Rita’s family’s.
 

By the way, Mr. Taketsuru was not a student to be content with studying in the campus. He passionately went through the intensive on the job training at the Longmorn Distillery near Elgin and the Hazelburn Distillery in Cambeltown.

And today, we are celebrating their marriage again exactly one hundred years ago. This is indeed a moving occasion for me and my wife because we celebrated our marriage, not hundred years ago obviously but this month with delicious Yoichi white wine in Hokkaido.
 

Of course, Yoichi is the town in Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of Japan, where after their brave decision to immigrate to Japan, Mr. Taketsuru and Rita built their home and distillery, which has grown into the present Nikka Whisky. In their memory in 1988, twin city relations are established between Yoichi and Strathkelvin, which was incorporated into East-Dumbartonshire as I understand. I am glad to learn this twin city friendship can be revived again.
 

In concluding, I would like to thank Provost Alan Brown again for your kind words, the Right Honorable Stuart Macdonald for your gracious presence, Ms. Mari Itoh for your efforts to realize this exhibition and to the  'Mother and Father of Japanese Whisky' without whom there would never had been high quality Japanese whiskey including Taketsuru Pure Malt 25 Years Old winning the 2019 World’s Best Blended Malt title and this beautiful friendship between Kirkintilloch and Yoichi, which happily add so much to Japan-Scotland relations.
 

Thank you very much for your attention.