Rogers, Proof, PDF sheets 46–57 is located and verified as secondary discovery evidence. Before publication, corroborate with Takamine's patents, contemporary reporting, company records, or specialist historical work.

In the 1890s Jokichi Takamine attempted to commercialize koji-derived starch conversion at the Whiskey Trust's Peoria operations as an industrial alternative to malt, but the process did not become the dominant American-whiskey method.

Rogers's account and endnotes were visually checked in the 319-sheet local PDF on 2026-08-27. External corroboration remains pending.

Rogers supplies a documented secondary narrative and source leads, but the precise chronology, commercial arrangements, causes of the malt-house fire, product name and scale, and reasons for the process's collapse require corroboration from Takamine's patents, contemporary reporting, company records, and specialist histories. No arson conclusion is adopted.

The bounded claim captures the durable historical point—the attempted industrial substitution of koji-derived enzymes for malt—without adopting Rogers's more dramatic implications about sabotage or declaring one cause for the venture's failure.

Created during the complete page-by-page processing of SRC-9 / LIT-19. Retain at Researching until primary or specialist corroboration resolves the episode's chronology and contested details. Fresh Proof source audit: full supplied text read, evidence locators rechecked. Takamine chronology, scale, commercialization and suspected arson remain research leads; no perpetrator or single cause established. This source-specific audit does not independently reverify other linked works or increase claim confidence.