Ichiro's Malt & Grain is blended by the king of independent Japanese distillers: Ichiro Akuto. Ichiro’s blend is a worldwide blended whisky in every sense of the word, a marriage of whiskies from Ichiro’s very own young malt & grain whisky stock, and whiskies from eight other distilleries in Scotland, Canada, England, Ireland and the U.S., which founder Ichiro Akuto refers to as, “the big five.”.