The early years - (1889 -1968)

The Hanafunda cards. Nintendo's first product!

Read about what the heck Nintendo did before they began making toys and video games... Learn about how Nintendo who in 1889 only was a small company selling Hanafunda playing card managed to become Japans biggest playing card company, with contacts with e.g. Walt Disney!

1889...

Fusajiro founds Nintendo Koppai to sell his Hanafunda cards.

This year Fusajiro Yamauchi who lived in Kyoto Japan founded Nintendo Koppai to begin producing and selling the special playing cards called "Hanafunda" (a.k.a. "Daitoryo" and "President") in Kyoto (Fusajiro was the great grandfather of the present Nintendo president). All the cards that Fusajiro produced was tenderly hand made using the bark from the mulberry or mitsu-mata trees.
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 like the wind, a deer, the moon or the chrysanthemum. Different combinations of symbols and suits was worth different many points.  The most popular Hanafunda game you could play was a simple matching cards game that could become very complex and was taken very seriously by the players. The cards was sold in Nintendo's own shops in both Kyoto and Osaka but they became most popular in the Kyoto region. In other regions Fusajiro sold other cards with different symbols like swords and mountains. At first the Hanafunda cards was only used as a domestic amusement and Fusajiro didn´t sold any big amounts of the handmade cards but after a while the cards began to be used in gambling and after a while the Yakuza (The Japanese Mafia) began using the Hanafunda cards in their high stake games and since all the professional players wanted to start a new game with a new fresh deck Fusajiro suddenly had problems keeping up with the demands! He had to start training apprentices to massproduce the cards.

1907	Nintendo expands!

Fusajiro expands his business and Nintendo becomes the first company to succeed in manufacturing western style playing cards and managing to successfully sell them in Japan. Now Fusajiro needed a better distribution system for his cards so Fusajiro struck a deal with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation to sell the cards in their stores.

1929	Fusajiro retires and Sekiryo Yamauchi takes over the company.

Fusajiro retires and Sekiryo Kaneda which after his marriage with Fusajiro's daughter Tei Yamauchi got the Yamauchi surname took over as the second Nintendo president. By now Nintendo was the largest playing cards company in Japan!

1933	Establishes a joint-venture partnership called Yamauchi Nintendo &Co.

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

1947	A distribution company was established.

An distribution company named Marufuku Co. Ltd. was established to distribute Nintendo's new western style cards like the pinochle and poker decks.

1949	Hiroshi Yamauchi takes office as president at Nintendo after his grandfather Sekiryo.

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!

1951	Name change to Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd.

Hiroshi changed the distribution company's name to Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd. (or Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd in Japan)

1952	Hiroshi modernized Nintendo and moved the HQ!

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.

1953	Modernizing the card making process.

Nintendo began using plastic-coated cards.

1959	Hiroshi strikes deal with Disney!

Hiroshi strikes an a deal with Disney to let Nintendo produce playing cards featuring Disney's characters. With the aid of successful TV ads and a good distribution system through many big toy and department stores around Japan these cards sold in no less than 600.000 packs that same year.

1962	Nintendo lists stock at the Osaka and the Kyoto Stock Exchange

In January, Nintendo listed stock on the second section of the Osaka Stock Exchange and on the Kyoto Stock Exchange.

1963(-68)

Name change to Nintendo Co. Ltd and starts to produce various products.

This year they changed the company name to what it is today, Nintendo Co. Ltd. and started to manufacturing games and toys instead of playing cards. New products were produced. For example a portioned instant rice which sadly became a failure. After that Hiroshi opened a "love hotel" with room rented by the hour. Fact is that Hiroshi himself was a big costumer at this love hotel although that he was a married man (His wife knew about his visits but she ignored it)! Another of Hiroshi's projects was "Daiya" a taxi company which was going well but after having to negotiate with far to powerful taxi driver unions wanting higher salaries etc he closed this business and later he also closed the love hotel also.

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