Founded in 1765, Sasanokawa is the oldest sake brewery in the Tohoku region of north-east Japan. The group first began producing whisky in 1946 and further developed the activity in the 1980s when ji-whisky came into fashion (whiskies produced locally by sake and shochu producers that were unfortunately not always of a high quality). With this trend eventually replaced by another, Sasanokawa stopped producing whisky at its Yamazakura site in 1998, nonetheless continuing to age and bottle the remaining stocks. It was also here that 400 casks of Hanyu were transferred after the distillery closed, before Ichiro Akuto was able to store them at Chichibu. In 2015, Sasanokawa announced the opening of its new Asaka distillery in the Fukushima mountains.

963 is a blend produced in Japan from malt and grain whiskies whose origins are unknown. 963 refers to the postcode of the former Sasanokawa Shuzo distillery, which closed in 1998.