Japanese Whisky was first distilled in 1925. Kiichiro Iwai, one of the founders of the MARS Distellery is regarded as the pioneer of Japanese Whisky, along with Masataka Taketsuru who founded Nikka and Suntory. Japanese single malts continue to be the most sought after whisky category in the world epitomized by single malts likes, Komagatake, Yamazaki, Tsunuki and others. Blended Japanese whisky, in fact first drove world attention towards the quality of Japanese Whisky, with brands like Hibiki, Nikka and Iwai. The Hombo family have been distilling for more than a century and added to their repertoire in 1949.