The name “Yamazaki” is made up of two Kanji (Chinese writing) characters – 山 is “yama” or mountain, and 崎 is “saki” or promontory. These words are prominently featured on the hand-affixed label of each bottle coming off the production line, fittingly for a distillery located in the gentle green slopes overlooking the union of three major rivers between Osaka and Kyoto, the Katsura, Uji, and Kizu.
Japanese readers will notice that the right-side component of the word “saki” is written to resemble the word 寿, “kotobuki” or longevity, instead of the original 奇, “ki” or weird. This intentional symbolism pays tribute to the humble beginnings of Japanese single malt whisky at this location in 1923, and wishes for its continued success for a very long time.