Nintendo



Over one hundred years ago, in 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi (who lived in Kyoto Japan) founded Nintendo Koppai, in order to produce and sell a special kind of playing card called "Hanafunda" (a.k.a. "Daitoryo" and "President"). All the cards that Fusajiro produced were tenderly hand made using the bark from the mulberry or mitsu-mata trees. Fusajiro was the great grandfather of the present Nintendo president.

The Hanafunda deck consisted of 48 cards divided in 12 different suits, one for each month of the year. Instead of numbers, the cards had different symbols, such as the wind, a deer, the moon or the chrysanthemum. Different combinations of symbols and suits were worth different points. The most popular Hanafunda game was a simple memory game that could become very complex, and was taken very seriously by the players. The cards were sold in Nintendo's own shops in both Kyoto and Osaka, but became most popular in the Kyoto region. In other regions, Fusajiro sold cards with different symbols, such as swords and mountains. At first, the Hanafunda cards were only used as a domestic amusement, and Fusajiro did not sell large amounts of the handmade cards. However, the cards gained popularity after a period of time. They were also used in gambling and, after a while, the Yakuza (The Japanese Mafia) began using the Hanafunda cards in their high stake game. Because all the professional players wanted to start a new game with a new fresh deck, Fusajiro had increasing difficulty keeping up with the demand. He had to start training apprentices to mass produce the cards.

In 1907, Fusajiro expanded his business, and Nintendo became the first company to succeed in manufacturing western style playing cards while managing to successfully sell them in Japan. Fusajiro, however, still needed a better distribution system for his cards, so he struck a deal with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation to sell the cards in their stores.

In 1929, Fusajiro retired, and Sekiryo Kaneda (who, after his marriage with Fusajiro's daughter, Tei Yamauchi maintained the Yamauchi surname) took over as the second Nintendo president. At this point Nintendo was the largest playing cards company in Japan.

In 1933, Sekiryo Yamauchi established a joint-venture partnership named Yamauchi Nintendo & Co, and moved the company's HQ to a new building constructed next door.

In 1949, Hiroshi Yamauchi (the current president at Nintendo) took office as president instead of his father Shikanojo, who ran away when Hiroshi was only 5 years old, leaving him and his mother Kimi alone. He knew that he was not welcome by the Nintendo's employees, so he started firing all the old managers and many of the old workers to make sure that there were no one to question his authority.

In 1951, Hiroshi changed the distribution company's name to Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd. (or Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd in Japan). In 1952, Hiroshi moved the Nintendo HQ to a newer building on the Takamatsu-cho street and consolidated the production plants in Kyoto to make the card producing process more efficient. In 1953, Nintendo began using plastic-coated cards.

In January 1962, Nintendo listed stock on the second section of the Osaka Stock Exchange and on the Kyoto Stock Exchange. In 1963, they changed the company name to what it is today, "Nintendo Co. Ltd.," and began manufacturing games and toys instead of just playing cards. New products were produced, but unwanted products such as "portioned instant rice" became failures. After that, Hiroshi opened a "love hotel" with room rented by the hour. Hiroshi himself was a big costumer at this love hotel, even though he was a married man. Another of Hiroshi's projects was "Daiya," a taxi company which was going well but, after having to negotiate with a taxi driver union wanting higher salaries etc., he closed the business, and later on also closed the love hotel also.