The Scottish Mother of Japanese Whisky

choi

Magnus Bennett, The Scottish Mother of Japanese Whisky. BBC, Jan 11, 2015.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-30682239

Note:
(a) "Jessie Roberta Cowan, from Kirkintilloch, had little idea how much her life was going to change when a young Japanese man took up lodgings at her family home in 1918. Masataka Taketsuru had come to Scotland to study the art of whisky-making, taking up chemistry at Glasgow University before becoming an apprentice at Longmorn Distillery in Speyside and later at Hazelburn Distillery in Campbeltown."
(i) Kirkintilloch
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkintilloch
("a town * * * about 8 miles (13 km) northeast of central Glasgow;" section 1 Toponymy)
(ii)
(A) lodging (n): "a room in the house of another used as a residence —usually used in plural"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lodging
(B) lodging: "[COUNT[ABLE] NOUN] (usually lodgings) A room or rooms rented out to someone, usually in the same residence as the owner <he was looking for lodgings and a job>"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/lodging
(iii) Masataka TTAKETSURU  竹鶴 政孝
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masataka_Taketsuru
(1894–1979; born to a family that had owned a sake brewery since 1733)
(iv) University of Glasgow
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Glasgow
(founded in 1451 AD by Pope Nicholas V, at the suggestion of King James II [of Scotland]; is the second-oldest university in Scotland after St Andrews and the fourth-oldest in the English-speaking world [University of Oxford (1096 or 1187; only University of Bologna, Italy, is older that still exists) > University of Cambridge (1209)> University of St Andrews (1413)]; public)
(v) For Speyside, see Strathspey
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathspey,_Scotland
(River Spey [qv, to know where it is relative to Glasgow)
(vi) Campbeltown
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbeltown
(was renamed in the 17th century as Campbell's Town after Archibald Campbell (Earl of Argyle) was granted the site in 1667)

(b) "By 1923 he was in Kyoto, working for Kotobukiya - later to become Japanese drinks giant Suntory - tasked with building Japan's first genuine whisky plant at Yamazaki."
(i)
(A) Japanese Wikipedia for Suntory: In 1899 TORII Shinjirō 鳥井 信治郎 (1879-1962) established 鳥井商店 whose business was "葡萄酒の製造販売." In 1921 he formed 株式会社壽屋 (壽屋 Kotobukiya). In 1929 he labeled the whiskey (which is American spelling) [which 壽屋 started selling] as Suntory--a combination of "sun" (which looked similar to the logo of a red round jade on the popular 赤玉 port wine 壽屋 produced) and his surname. In 1963 upon selling the beer it brewed, the company changed name (from 壽屋) by adopting the trademark of the whiskey. Suntory is based in Osaka.
(B) English Wikipedia for Suntory: Torii began building Yamazaki Distillery (Japan's first commercial whisky distillery) in 1923, which first produced whiskey in 1924 and marketed/sold it in 1929.
(ii) Japanese Wikipedia under 竹鶴 政孝: His surname came from the fact that behind the house was a bamboo grove where cranes built nests ("家の裏にあった竹林に鶴が巣を作ったことから由来している)/
(iii) Japanese name
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
(except aristocratic names, "modern Japanese family names date only to the 19th century, following the Meiji restoration [which decreed everybody have a surname], and were chosen at will * * * since little time has passed, Japanese names have not experienced as significant surname extinction as has occurred in the much longer history in China")
(iv) Japanese Wikipedia: Yamazaki Distillery is located at Osaka Prefecture 大阪府 but outside City of Osaka 大阪市 (capital of Osaka Prefecture). In Yamazaki, since ancient time, water of good quality has gushed out. This was where noted tea master SEN no Rikyū [1522 – 1591] set up shop ("千利休が茶室を設けた場所").

(c)  Japanese English dictionary
kotobuki 寿 【ことぶき】 (n): "longevity; long life"

(d) "A decade later, he 竹鶴 prepared to start up his own distillery at Yoichi, marking the beginnings of what was to become major Japanese drinks business Nikka" whose first whiskey was on the market in 1940, "according to Nikka Whisky international sales manager Emiko Kaji."
(i) Nikka ニッカ Whisky Distilling  
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikka_Whisky_Distilling
(Yoichi distillery in Yoichi 余市, Hokkaidō (established in 1934); Taketsuru married Cowan, the daughter of a Glasgow doctor)
(ii) The Scottish surname Cowan is reduced form of McCowen/McCowan.
(iii) To make better whiskey (in a climate similar to that of Scotland) 竹鶴 moved to Hokkaido. First taking advantage of abundant apples around his enterprise, he made apple juice--hence the company name 大日本果汁株式会社」(略称「日果」Nikka, which is now the formal company name). Its current headquarters ["noun plural but singular or plural in construction": m-w.com] is in Tokyo.
ニッカウヰスキー
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8B%E3%83%83%E3%82%AB%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B0%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC
(iv) At least some Japanese-language reports refer to Ms Emiko KAJI by her name in the ENGLISH alphabet.

(e) "Her great-nephew Harry Hogan, from Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire"

Newton Mearns
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_Mearns
(a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland; lies 7 miles (11.3 km) southwest of Glasgow City Centre)
(f) "According to Urs Matthias Zachmann, head of Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, the Japanese authorities also made life difficult for her."

Urs is a male given name, German form of the Latin noun masculine ursus bear.

(g) "TV drama Massan [produced by NHK] is a fictionalised account of Rita's travels to Japan and Masataka's attempts to begin the Nikka Whisky distilling company, which is now owned by drinks group Asahi."
(i) マッサン Massan
www.nhk.or.jp/massan/outline/
("放送時間2014年9月29日(月)~2015年3月28日(土) 全150回")
(ii) Naoko FUNATSU 船津 直子 (?), American Will Be the First Foreign Actor to Star in NHK’s Morning Drama in Japan. Asia Matters for America, Mar 19, 2014
www.asiamattersforamerica.org/ja ... ning-drama-in-japan
("The show is called 'NHK Renzoku TV Shosetsu [NHK] 連続テレビ小説,' which literally means 'NHK Serial TV Novel,' and is aired every weekday morning for 15 minutes over 6 months. * * * [securing the role after audition, Charlotte Kate] Fox will play the role of the Scottish wife of Masataka Taketsuru * * * The drama is entitled 'Massan' after Rita’s nickname for her husband")

The "san" in "Massan" is both second syllable of 竹鶴's given name and 様 (an honorific), I guess.
(iii) As you can see from (i) and (ii), the dark-hair Ms Fox dyed her hair blond for the TV series, although the real Ms Cowan had dark hair, too. (Then again the TV series is dramatized, whose protagomists are Masaharu KAMEYAMA 亀山 政春 and Ellie Kameyama 亀山 エリー.
(iv) Ellie
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellie