Drifters x Kanosuke Distillery: Limited-Limited Edition, 6-Year-Aged Collaboration Whisky
Shogakukan Shueisha Productions Inc. (ShoPro) Press Release: September 26, 2025 “Drifters” x Kanosuke Distillery: Limited-edition, 6-year-old collaboration whiskey released Single malt whiskeys carefully selected by whiskey critic Hideo Yamaoka will be sold by lottery.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/2610/1642/2610-1642-269d9a8988aed4ed64092c23c8466a29-1000×414.jpg
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/2610/1642/2610-1642-a6a1cf1bb5f61732d2e9cb3e3ff811cd-600×600.jpg (C) Kouta Hirano, Shonen Gahosha Drifters (author: Hirano Kouta) is a popular manga that has been serialized in Young King Ours since 2009. The protagonist, Shimazu Toyohisa, fights to return his uncle, Shimazu Yoshihiro, to Satsuma during the Battle of Sekigahara, but is seriously injured and near death. Stranded in another world, he meets Oda Nobunaga and Nasu no Yoichi, who were supposed to be dead, and embarks on a new battle as a “Drifter.” Hiki City, Kagoshima Prefecture, is home to the grave of Sengoku period warlord Toyohisa. His uncle, Yoshihiro, fought on the Toyotomi side in the Battle of Sekigahara. The Shimazu forces broke through the Tokugawa lines and returned to Kagoshima. The Myoenji Temple Pilgrimage, which began as a memorial to the samurai’s hardships, continues to this day and is held every October in Hioki City. We will be releasing a special
collaboration whiskey with Kanosuke Distillery, located in Hioki City. Hideo Yamaoka visited Kanosuke Distillery in May 2025 and selected the whiskey from multiple cask samples. Distilled in April 2019, it was aged for four years in Kosei Brewery’s Mellow Kozuru rice shochu barrels, then transferred to Scotch barrels in May 2023 and bottled in August 2025. It has a wonderful aroma with a mature feel that’s hard to believe it’s been aged for six years, and a pleasant woody, bitter taste. It leaves a long, warm aftertaste. It is unknown how long the Scotch casks used for aging were in use, but judging from the rich, mature aroma and flavor, they may have contained a fairly long-aged Scotch whiskey. Please try this special collaboration whiskey, created in the land of Hioki. https://whiskymew.jp/media/pr_1007/ “Shimazu Toyohisa” Label / Kanosuke 2019 Sales Price: ¥26,950 (tax included) Total number of bottles: 270. 700ml. Aged 6 years. Alcohol content: 58%. Made from malt. Origin: Japan. ＜Lottery sale＞ Raffle pre-order period: Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 12:00 PM to Monday, October 13, 2025, 11:59 PM Number of units sold: 147 *Sales will be limited to those selected by lottery. ＜How to Purchase＞ Whiskey Specialty Site [WHISKY MEW] https://whiskymew.jp/media/pr_1007/ *Sales will be by lottery. *Applications are limited to one bottle per person. Applications from housemates will be invalid. *Drinking alcohol is prohibited by law for those under the age of 20. *No returns. *Please refrain from purchasing for the purpose of resale, as we want as many people as possible to purchase at a fair price. We cannot guarantee the quality or safety of products purchased secondhand at auctions, etc.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/2610/1642/2610-1642-8492fbf8f311522e2bf1da0548802164-560×745.jpg Whisky critic, journalist, and translator. He has a global network and was selected as one of 16 whiskey collectors in the world by “Collecting Scotch Whisky.” He has also won eight international nosing contests. He serves as supervisor of the whiskey specialty website “WHISKY MEW.” He has written and translated numerous books about whiskey, including the DVD book “Single Malt Landscapes” (Shogakukan). He supervised and translated “Malt Whisky Companion, Revised 7th Edition,” the latest edition of the global bestseller by the late Michael Jackson, which conveys the essence of malt whiskey. Now on sale at the [WHISKY MEW] website.
https://whiskymew.jp/items/3900009.html ＜What is WHISKY MEW＞ The idea of combining manga and whiskey was born from Hideo Yamaoka, a world-renowned whiskey collector and former manga editor at
Shogakukan, who wanted more people to learn about the diverse appeal of whiskey. In 2017, Shogakukan Shueisha Productions (ShoPro) and Hideo Yamaoka launched a project to label the best whiskeys with manga, anime, art, etc. that will delight everyone. Hideo Yamaoka tastes and selects casks of Scotch and Japanese whiskey. We explore the diversity of whiskey in various ways. [Homepage/SNS information] ・WHISKY MEW：https://whiskymew.jp/ ・Official Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/whiskymew ・Official X: @whiskymew
(https://X.com/whiskymew) ・Official Instagram: @whisky_mew
(https://www.instagram.com/whisky_mew/)