Masanari Takano (高野正誠, 1852–1923)

Life

Masanari Takano (高野正誠) was born in 1852 in Katsunuma, Yamanashi, into a farming family. Yamanashi’s grape-growing tradition dated back centuries, but commercial winemaking did not exist in Japan in any modern form when Takano was a young man.

In 1877, the Meiji-era Yamanashi prefectural government — convinced that European winemaking technique could be adapted to local conditions — selected Takano and Ryūken Tsuchiya, both young men in their twenties, to travel to France to study winemaking. The mission was unusually ambitious for its era: the two men spent roughly two years training in France (sources differ on the exact duration), focused mainly in the Bordeaux and Loire regions.

They returned in 1879 and immediately founded the Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budōshu Kaisha (大日本山梨葡萄酒会社) in Katsunuma, with prefectural and private investment backing. It was the first Japanese-owned commercial wine company employing modern French technique.

The First Years

The early wines were technical struggles. Yamanashi’s climate, the unfamiliar Koshu grape, and the absence of a domestic wine-drinking culture all complicated commercial viability. The company reorganized several times in its first two decades — but the pattern of Japanese-led, French-informed wine production in Katsunuma was now established.

The Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budōshu Kaisha became, through several corporate transformations, the predecessor of what is now Mercian (founded as a brand in 1949, owned today by Kirin).

Death

Takano died in 1923. He had spent his career as a champion of Yamanashi wine, training subsequent generations of Katsunuma vintners. His co-founder Ryūken Tsuchiya outlived him by some years and similarly remained active in the industry.

Why He Matters

Takano (with Tsuchiya) is a foundational figure of Japanese commercial wine. The Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budōshu Kaisha was not the first attempt at Japanese wine — that was the Yamada-Takuma trial in Kōfu in 1875 — but it was the first commercially-organized, French-trained, Japanese-owned operation, and it established the model that the modern industry would follow. Mercian’s 1877 founding date traces directly to his return from France.

Details

• Born: 1852, Katsunuma, Yamanashi
• Died: 1923
• Sent to France: 1877 (with Ryūken Tsuchiya)
• Returned: 1879
• Founded: Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budōshu Kaisha (1877/1879)
• Lineage: Direct predecessor of Château Mercian