Scottish exhibition feting “mother of Japanese whisky”

UK-Japan News June 2018

PHOTO: EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE LEISURE & CULTURE TRUST

An exhibition on the life of a woman dubbed the “mother of Japanese whisky” has opened in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, the BBC reported on 28 May.

Rita Cowan married Japanese Masataka Taketsuru in 1920, when the latter was studying at the University of Glasgow. He later opened a distillery in Yoichi, on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.

The article said Cowan provided moral and financial support to her husband in helping him produce his first whisky in 1940, and the exhibition includes such items as her kimono and obi sash.