Founded in 2007 by Ichiro Akuto, grandson of the founder of the Hanyu distillery, Chichibu has been in business since February 2008. Consisting of two stills made to order in Scotland by Forsyth’s, it is not only the first Japanese single malt distillery since Hakushu, but it was also the smallest and most confidential. Beginning with the sale in 2008 of several very young whiskey cuvées, the “newborn” range, Ichiro offered, from Whiskey Live Paris 2011, his first “real” whiskey, a three-year-old cask brut. Today the distillery bottles its own whiskeys up to 12 years old for its Chichibu and Ichiro’s Malt range. The distillery also houses the last stocks of Karuizawa, Kawasaki and Hanyu.