Eigashima (White Oak)

Eigashima took out Japan's first whisky licence in 1919 — four years before Yamazaki was built — though sake and shochu paid the bills for decades while whisky was a sideline. Its little White Oak distillery on the Akashi coast now bottles the Akashi range: light, maritime, sherry-and-bourbon-cask malts made in short seasonal runs. The underdog's claim stands: whisky's Japanese paper trail starts here, beside the Seto Inland Sea.