JP | EN

NISHIYAMA DISTILLERY

Are you of legal drinking age?

This site contains information about alcoholic beverages.
Please confirm that you have reached the legal drinking age
in your country or region.

Please drink responsibly and only if you have reached the legal drinking age in your country or region. Do not drink and drive.

NISHIYAMA DISTILLERY — est. 1849

The first Japanese whisky from NISHIYAMA DISTILLERY

丹陰霧海

TAN'IN MUKAI

"Born in the mist. Aged in silence."

2027. 03 — WORLD LAUNCH PREMIUM JAPANESE SINGLE MALT WHISKY

Scroll

Brand Concept The Aesthetics of Time,
Brewed in the Mist

Bottling the mist. Bottling the silence.

Every morning in Tanba, the mountains dissolve into fog.
That stillness — the moment the hills vanish into white — was the only reason we needed to make whisky.

We wanted to send that landscape into the hands of someone, somewhere in the world.
Over 175 years of brewing wisdom, the terroir of Tanba, and a single quiet ambition —
they converge in one bottle: TAN'IN MUKAI.

Past A deep bond between poets, painters, and the brewers who poured for them
Present The bond between the maker and the drinker, growing with every bottle opened
Future Each bottle passes on the story — connecting eras, connecting people

TAN'IN MUKAI is a whisky that grows through connection — between maker and drinker, between this land and the wider world.
Each bottle passed from hand to hand carries the story forward, weaving new encounters into its history.
That unfolding of time is what we mean by en — the bonds this whisky is built to create.

Origin of the Name

The Japanese painter Ippo Ogawa and the third-generation brewer Hakuun Nishiyama shared a rare friendship — across art and craft, across the Meiji and Showa eras.

Gazing into the misted valleys of Tanba, Ogawa brushed four characters: 丹陰霧海 — "the shadowed hills, a sea of fog."
To seal that silence inside a bottle — that is the promise this whisky keeps.

Craftsmanship Three Distinctions

Tanba Terroir & Three Cellars Tanba Terroir
& Three Maturation Cellars

Tanba's dramatic temperature swings between day and night generate the deep, rolling fog that defines the region. This climate accelerates barrel maturation, drawing out complex flavours found nowhere else.

Three cellars, three personalities: the original sake brewery warehouse; a brandy cellar perched on a hillside; and a decommissioned wooden schoolhouse nestled in a mountain valley. Each environment imprints a different character onto the spirit.

Homemade Brandy Cask Finish Pomace Brandy
Cask Finish

Only a distillery that has already won the Grand Prix & Best in Class at TWSC 2026 for its aged brandy could offer this: a finish in barrels seasoned with our own pomace brandy.

Since 2003, Nishiyama has been distilling brandy from grape pomace. The result is a finish that delivers lingering sweetness and floral complexity — a flavour profile that could only come from this cellar.

175 Years of Fermentation Craft Where Sake Craft
Meets Whisky

In Japanese sake brewing, an old saying holds: "First, koji. Second, the starter. Third, fermentation." Fermentation is everything.

For over 175 years, Nishiyama has cultivated that intimacy with microbes, water, and temperature. The dialogue honed through countless batches of sake carries directly into the fermentation of malted barley. Ninety percent of whisky is made before distillation begins — and this bottle carries 175 years of proof.

Award Recognition

TWSC 2026

Aged Brandy — Best in Class
Whisky New Born — Gold

Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition 2026

Recognised by the world before its release.
The silence of Tanba, now confirmed on the international stage.

NISHIYAMA DISTILLERY

Founded 1849.
Rooted in Tanba.
Reaching the World.

Nishiyama Distillery has brewed in the hills of Tanba, Hyogo for over 175 years — through seasons, through floods, through generations.

Its main brewery buildings are registered as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan. The fermentation knowledge protected within those walls now finds a new vessel: whisky.
A distillery that carries the memory of the land. Now taking its first step toward the world.

NISHIYAMA DISTILLERY →

Our Story Three Stories

175 Years of Fermentation Why a Sake Brewery
Makes Whisky

For over 175 years, Nishiyama has worked with the rice, water, and microorganisms of Tanba. That accumulated knowledge — the dialogue with microbes through rice fermentation, the intuition carried into mash fermentation, the culture of brandy born from grape pomace — lives on in every drop of this whisky.

It is the fermentation craft of a sake brewery that makes this bottle unlike anything else in the world.

A Dream Born in Italy One Glass.
A Dream Begins.

In 1999, Yuzo Nishiyama encountered grappa in Italy — a spirit wrapped in a beautiful bottle, rooted in the culture of the table. "Japan deserves something like this," he thought. That single glass set everything in motion.

Master distiller Atsushi Oda travelled to Italy to learn the craft firsthand, transcending language barriers. Through years of experimentation, he created "Tan Brandy" — a brandy shaped by the sensibility of Tanba. The barrels of that brandy now finish TAN'IN MUKAI. A dream poured into grappa has found its way into whisky.

III

A Painter and a Brewer The Painter, the Brewer,
and the Name

Ippo Ogawa, the celebrated Japanese ink painter active from the Meiji through Showa eras, and Hakuun Nishiyama, the third-generation master of the distillery — theirs was a friendship across art and craft.

Gazing at the shadowed mountains of Tanba, Ogawa painted four characters: 丹陰霧海 — "the dark hills, a sea of mist." To seal that silence inside a bottle, to offer it to the world — that is the origin of this brand, and its enduring promise.

丹陰霧海

Founded 1849. Rooted in Tanba. Reaching the World.

Founded 1849.
Rooted in Tanba.
Reaching the World.