Founded in 1888, the sake and shochu-producing company Eigashima Shuzo was granted a whisky license in 1919. This license could in theory mean the company was a pioneer in the production of Japanese whisky. In reality, however, it is unlikely the whisky sold by the company at the time was actually produced on site, as Eigashima owned did not own any production equipment until the 1960s, when two copper pot stills were finally installed to produce malt whisky. In 1981, as whisky became extremely popular in Japan, the group decided to build a new distillery, which has remained almost completely untouched since. It uses malt from the United Kingdom that is lightly peated (3-5 PPM until 2014, 10 ppm since). The spirit is matured on site, mainly in bourbon, sherry or barley shochu casks.

Akashi is a blend of malt whisky from the Eigashima distillery and malt and grain whisky from Scotland and Canada aged in American oak casks. This version bottled for the French market contains a higher proportion of malt than usual (45% vs 30%). Meïsei means “celebrity” in Japanese.